Brussels, 10 July 2018 – Speaking at an EU stakeholder event, organised by the European Commission on July 10-11th, Cefic Director General Marco Mensink said any solutions towards achieving long-term emission reduction by mid-century would be provided by chemistry. Emission reduction technologies must be produced in Europe and CEOs need to know where to invest their money, he added. He proposed that the EU launch 20 large scale decarbonisation projects to move forward.
Earlier, speaking at the same event, focusing on the EU’s long-term emissions reduction strategy, European Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete said the EU needed to look at higher reductions in emissions than is presently the case for the longer term, building on its recently agreed 2030 targets for renewables and energy efficiency. As well as reducing emissions, the EU should also look at how to absorb them, he stressed. Carbon capture and storage could be one option.
The Commission is contemplating whether to propose a goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050 as one of several options for its strategy.
Commission Vice-President Maroš Šefčovič called for an ambitious strategy, broad in scope. He saw opportunities for European innovation policy and to fill the gap between demonstration and the commercial deployment of innovations, to avoid our innovators fleeing to our global competitors to commercialise their products.
Brussels plans to publish a draft of the strategy by November, ahead of the COP24 summit in Katowice, Poland.