The European Commission’s (EC) new Green Deal Industrial Plan includes proposals to ease state aid rules to make subsidies more freely available to entice green technology firms to the bloc. The move, seen as a direct response to the US Inflation Reduction Act, which last year promised billions of dollars in grants and loans to fund new clean energy projects, risks placing the UK’s nascent green technology firms at a competitive disadvantage to its peers, according to analysts.
EC president Ursula von der Leyen said Europe had a “once-in-a-generation opportunity... to secure the EU’s lead in the fast-growing net zero technology sector” through the plan.
Proposals include a previously announced measure to simplify regulations so that green projects can be developed more quickly, faster access to funding, support for skills development and measures for open trade to “support resilient supply chains”.