Green Deal Industrial Plan

Green Deal Industrial Plan

Subject : Environment

Section: Climate Change

Context: In a bid to support and expand its green industry, the European Union on February 1 revealed the “Green Deal Industrial Plan” that aims to cut red tape and provide massive subsidies.

Concept:

‘Green Deal Industrial Plan’ oversees trade policy of the EU, the proposal involves building a simpler regulatory framework, providing faster access to funds, enhancing skills and improving the EU’s trade network.

Features 

1. Simpler regulatory framework: 

• A “Net-Zero Industry Act”, which will not only simplify rules but also speed up the issuance of permits for green projects, such as renewable energy generation arrays, carbon capture and renewable hydrogen production facilities.
• A “Critical Raw Materials Act”, which will provide access to materials like rare earths that are crucial for developing net-zero technology.

2. Providing faster access to funds: 

• The state aid rules will be loosened in order to help EU’s 27 governments with investing in the clean energy projects.
• The plan allows countries to take money from existing EU funds. It seeks to direct €250 billion to serve the green industry from the existing EU money, which is around €800 billion.
• “European Sovereignty Fund” in the future to “give a structural answer to the investment needs”

3. Enhancing skills: The plan aims to establish “Net-Zero Industry Academies” that will provide up-skilling and re-skilling programmes in strategic industries. As 30 to 40 per cent of the existing jobs might get affected due to green transition, there’s a need for well-paid quality jobs.
4. Improving the trade network: The plan underlines the importance of open trade and seeks to further “develop the EU’s network of Free Trade Agreements and other forms of cooperation with partners to support the green transition.”