Friday, 7 June 2024. The ID-E’s Webinar Series #6 provided an overview on the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), one of the key legislations reshaping the landscape for clean energy investments within the European Commission's Green Deal Industrial Plan. Specifically, NZIA sets a benchmark for the manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies to meet at least 40% of the EU’s annual deployment needs by 2030. 

The webinar was opened by a representative of DG ENER who introduced the European energy landscape underpinning the new legislative measure, including the implications of the Russian aggression towards Ukraine.

The webinar provided an overview of NZIA starting from its general objective of establishing a regulatory framework to ensure the Union’s access to a secure and sustainable supply of net-zero technologies, including by scaling up the manufacturing capacity of net-zero technologies and their supply chains. Furthermore, NZIA’s political benchmarks, the scope and the type of projects covered, as well as a brief explanation of the Act’s structure were presented.

Following, a series of interventions were conducted to introduce the NZIA’s key dimensions:

• A representative from DG ENER introduced the Net-Zero Europe Platform. Its objective is to support the harmonised implementation of NZIA by coordinating activities, sharing best practices and providing advice on several NZIA provisions.
• A representative from DG GROW covered the topics of strategic projects and funding opportunities. Specifically, NZIA provides the possibility for net-zero technology manufacturing projects to apply for the status of “strategic project”.
• A representative from DG ENER introduced the NZIA impacts on access to market concerning the new mandatory rules on public procurement.
• A representative from DG GROW provided a presentation of the NZIA measures to increase the predictability and harmonization of permitting. He outlined the concept of Net-Zero Acceleration Valleys, an industrial catalyst concept based on Member States designating specific geographic areas to foster net-zero industry clusters and further streamline administrative procedures.

Lastly, the next steps of NZIA were presented which include the implementation of the strategic projects processes and the adoption of secondary legislation. The NZIA will enter into force end of June 2024.

The Webinar was concluded by a Q&A session covering the kind of support the European Union can provide to foster investments in net-zero technologies as well as topics related to new public procurement and auctioning rules, the Net-Zero Europe Platform, permitting processes and funding opportunities. In a poll within the audience asking about tools to incentivise investment in clean tech manufacturing guarantees have been mentioned as one of the key tools. 

In case you have missed the webinar, you can watch the recording here!