New EU plan targets 90% greenhouse gas cut by 2040

The European Commission has presented a plan aiming to slash net greenhouse gas pollution in the EU by 90 percent by 2040, compared to 1990 levels, with a focus on carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuels and gases from agriculture and land use.

Market officials have described the plan’s goal of coming close to climate neutrality ten years before 2050 as highly ambitious.

The 2040 targets are a first step for energy legislation proposals concerning buildings, transport, alternative green fuels, industry and renewables.

Extending energy legislation beyond 2030 promises to serve as a major catalyst for development of technologies and investments.

The European Commission’s proposals, announced ahead of elections in June, will activate a new energy policy cycle, as was the case, years ago, when 2030 targets were set, triggering spectacular growth in the renewable energy, energy saving and electromobility sectors.

The new 2040 targets will be even more challenging as the 90 percent greenhouse gas reduction target will require tremendous change in the energy, agriculture and land-use domains, amongst others.

The European Commission plan’s proposals are based on extremely detailed simulation of the respective energy systems of EU member states and projections made through exclusive usage of PRIMES, a mathematical model developed at the National Technical University of Athens for all of Europe – it has been consistently applied since 1995 for all EU energy policy proposals – and studies conducted by the Athens-based E3 Modelling scientific team for energy and transportation.

 

European CEO Alliance backs ambitious climate strategy

100 billion euros of investment to decarbonize their companies by 2030, a gradual introduction of a cross-sector CO2 price and ambitious phase-out dates for coal: These are some of the key points of ten top managers from the energy, transport and technology industries issued in a joint position paper. Thereby, the leading European CEOs are calling for far-reaching climate protection measures at the occasion of the seventh international climate strike on Friday, March 19, 2021.

The ten business leaders Björn Rosengren (ABB), Thierry Vanlancker (AkzoNobel), Francesco Starace (ENEL), Leonhard Birnbaum (E.ON), Ignacio Galán (Iberdrola), Søren Skou (Maersk), Christian Klein (SAP), Henrik Henriksson (Scania), Jean-Pascale Tricoire (Schneider Electric) and Herbert Diess (Volkswagen) are members of the “CEO Alliance for Europe’s Recovery, Reform and Resilience”.

This CEO Alliance formed in 2020 against the backdrop of the Covid-19 pandemic and the historic decisions on the European Green Deal. Their common goal is to make the EU the world’s leading region for climate protection while unlocking investments, driving innovations in tomorrow’s technologies and creating future-proof jobs.

The top managers published a joint position paper with ambitious proposals. They state: “We firmly believe that the EU Green Deal and Next Generation EU will put Europe’s innovation and business ingenuity to the service of the global climate cause, will kick-start a wave of investments into sustainability and resilience and will create future-proof jobs across the EU.”

The CEOs encourage European policy makers to take bold steps towards climate neutrality such as “continuing to pursue a standardized cross-sector CO2 price” and “setting end-dates for carbon-intense technologies”.

The CEO Alliance considers itself an “Action Tank”, working together in concrete joint projects: Cross-EU charging infrastructure for heavy duty transport, integration of EU Power systems, digital carbon footprint tracking, sustainable healthy buildings, e-buses for Europe, green hydrogen value chain and rapid build-up of battery production.

The aspiration of the top managers is to work with their companies across sectors to find practical solutions for effective climate protection. In doing so, they strive for an ongoing constructive dialogue with the EU Commission. In a digital meeting just days ago, the Executive Vice President of the Commission Frans Timmermans and the CEOs discussed the progress on the implementation of the Green Deal and the interim status of the Alliance’s joint projects.

Executive Vice-President Timmermans stated: “Making Europe climate neutral by 2050 is a huge challenge. The European Commission will propose legislation to put sectors like transport and energy on the right track. Our long term plan includes investment in charging infrastructure, battery production, renovation and renewable energy production. The NextGeneration EU recovery fund will help make this possible. Our goal is not any transition, it’s a just and fair transition, leaving no one behind. I welcome the CEO Alliance’s commitment to Europe’s green recovery and share their conviction that their companies have what it takes to build a sustainable future.”

 

 

 

 

 

Tenaris, Edison, Snam unite for hydrogen-based steelmaking project

Tenaris, Edison and Snam have signed a letter of intent to launch a project aimed at decarbonizing Tenaris’s seamless pipe mill in Dalmine, northern Italy, through the introduction of green hydrogen in some production processes, the companies have announced.

The project, which is part of a broader initiative known as “Dalmine Zero Emissions”, promises to launch the first industrial-scale application of hydrogen in Italy to decarbonize the steel sector.

Tenaris, Edison and Snam will collaborate to identify and implement the most suitable solutions for the production, distribution and use of green hydrogen at the Tenaris mill, contributing their skills to invest in the best available technologies.

The project looks to generate hydrogen and oxygen through an approximate 20 MW electrolyzer that will be installed at the Dalmine plant and to adapt the steelmaking process to use green hydrogen instead of natural gas.

The initiative may also include the construction of a storage site for the accumulation of high-pressure hydrogen and the use of oxygen, locally produced through electrolysis, within the melting process. The development of the project would significantly reduce CO2 emissions related to electric arc furnace steel.

After the initial test, the three companies will evaluate whether to expand the collaboration to other stages of the production process, therefore extending the use of hydrogen.

The broader “Dalmine Zero Emissions” initiative was launched by Tenaris together with Tenova and Techint Engineering & Construction to integrate green hydrogen in steelmaking from the electric arc furnace steel and in the downstream processing of the Dalmine mill.

Michele Della Briotta, President of Tenaris Europe and CEO of TenarisDalmine, noted: “The ‘Dalmine Zero Emissions’ project is our latest initiative launched by Tenaris in Italy to improve our environmental footprint, after the investments and projects for the protection of air quality, for energy efficiency, for the reduction of raw materials consumption, for the increase of the content of recycled material in our products and for the enhancement and reuse of our by-products. Through the ‘Dalmine Zero Emissions’ project’, together with qualified partners, we are starting the energy transition of the Dalmine plant, placing ourselves at the forefront of sustainability in the steel sector.”

Nicola Monti, CEO of Edison, commented: “With this agreement, Edison launches a path to support the decarbonization of industrial sectors that are key to the national economy, thus contributing to the achievement of the energy transition objectives set at a national level in the PNIEC and at a European level in the Green Deal. The renewable energy produced by our plants and the technological solutions available to us can concretely contribute to the development of a new and important national value chain, which in the coming decades will accompany the evolution of the economic and production system towards climate neutrality.”

Marco Alverà, CEO of Snam, remarked: “Green hydrogen can represent the ideal solution to decarbonize some key industrial sectors, in particular to produce zero-emission steel in the long term. Today’s agreement, which features three companies active along the entire value chain, is a first step to achieving this important goal. Thanks to its technologies and infrastructure, Snam acts as one of the enablers of the hydrogen supply chain, to contribute to the fight against climate change and the creation of new development opportunities, in line with national and European strategies.”

The implementation of the project will be governed by separate agreements negotiated between the parties in compliance with the legal and regulatory framework.