13 September 2023:
Today, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivered her annual State of the European Union address, emphasising the need for the Parliament to “finish the job’’ before the upcoming elections of June 2024. Whilst described as “the centrepiece of [the European Union’s] economy”, the next phase of the European Green Deal received relatively little coverage, with focus being directed more towards the Union’s social and foreign policy.
However, von der Leyen restated that the aim of the Green Deal is to provide a framework, incentives, and investment for the clean transition, noting that the climate agenda is also an economic one. A brief mention was given to the Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act, as well as the need to ensure that the future of the clean tech industry (including batteries) is made in Europe. In this regard, von der Leyen encouraged the Parliament to agree on the budget for the Sustainable Transition Enhancement Program (STEP) to boost, leverage, and steer EU funds to invest in areas such as clean tech. The need to develop an approach for each industrial ecosystem was also highlighted, with Clean Transition Dialogues planned with industry from this month to support every sector in its business model for the decarbonisation of industry.
It seems therefore that the next year will see continued developments in policy relating to energy storage and flow batteries, with a clear emphasis being seen in the speech on developing and incentivising a continuously growing European clean tech industry.
