26 Feb. Is the "Clean Industrial Deal" enough?

The EU Commission presented its long-announced industrial and climate strategy "Clean Industrial Deal" in Brussels today. Saarland MEP Manuela Ripa (Ecological Democratic Party / Group of the European People's Party) comments on this:

"With the Clean Industrial Deal presented today, the EU is moving in the right direction. CO2 reduction can indeed be an innovative driver for Europe's industry to make Europe a global leader in the sector and achieve the climate targets set by the EU. I am delighted that the goal of manufacturing 40% of climate-friendly technologies such as solar cells or wind turbines within the EU in future has been confirmed, thus strengthening the "Made in Europe" concept. But there is still room for improvement here! The introduction of green lead markets through the Clean Industrial Deal also makes a lot of sense in terms of industrial policy.

However, many of the EU Commission's ideas are vague and have yet to be transformed into specific and effective measures. One approach, for example, would be to allow car manufacturers to include the use of green steel in production in their official CO2 balance. This would be an incentive to adapt to the statutory CO2 fleet limits in an innovative way. At the moment, car manufacturers are paying billions to Tesla and other electric car manufacturers to form so-called CO2 pools within which CO2 emissions can be offset. This is one of the reasons for Tesla's massive overvaluation. A rethink here would help the automotive industry, the steel industry and climate protection.

Europe's raw materials policy also needs to change fundamentally. At the moment, the USA is creating new facts with the raw materials deal in Ukraine that Europeans cannot ignore. In Europe, a comprehensive circular economy, in particular the recovery of critical raw materials from waste, must become the new priority. Only through European leadership in this area can we achieve sustainability and resilience. Fundamentally, the goals of the European Green Deal must remain in place and must not be undermined."