News » Fit for 55 package signals step-change in EU climate policy
Fit for 55 package signals step-change in EU climate policy
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The EU Climate Law - recently endorsed by the EU institutions – sets the ambition to reduce emissions by 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels and to reach climate neutrality by 2050. This target makes the EU by far the most ambitious major region worldwide in the field of climate policy.
This specific target forms part of the wider European Green Deal, first presented by the Commission in December 2019. This set out a detailed vision to make Europe the first climate-neutral continent by 2050, safeguard biodiversity, establish a circular economy and eliminate pollution, while boosting the competitiveness of European industry and ensuring a just transition for the regions and workers affected.
That political ambition is now to be made whole in a raft of legislation set to formally emerge on 14 July 2021 in the form of the Fit for 55 package, including: the revision of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), revision of the Energy Tax Directive (ETD), amendments to the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Directives, as well as others on the reduction of methane emissions from the power sector, greenhouse emissions from land use and rules on passenger cars and alternative fuels.
The Fit for 55 package is one of the most significant - and largest - groups of measures the EU has ever released in one go.
The European steel industry supports the objectives of the European Green Deal – and thus understands and supports the rationale behind the Great Leap of the Fit for 55 package – as long as it proves to be a strategy for growth: with effective carbon leakage protection, support for low carbon technologies (through de-risking instruments like carbon contracts for difference), demand-side measures to create markets for green steel, and affordable, low-carbon energy,.
Our sector already had the ambition to reduce CO2 emissions by 30% by 2030 compared to 2018 levels (which is the same as -55% compared to 1990). This reduction can only be achieved if the large number of advanced decarbonisation projects led by European steel companies – over 100 across Europe – are covered by a robust and supportive EU framework.
With the new, more ambitious EU climate target and increasing carbon price, it is ever more essential to prevent carbon leakage effectively.
EUROFER will be working hard to ensure that the best possible framework is created out of Fit for 55, ensuring that European steel can continue to be competitive during its transition to the green and sustainable future.
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Brussels, 10 September 2024 – The Draghi Report thoroughly identifies the bottlenecks to both the EU industry's decarbonisation and competitiveness. The proposed recommendations for energy-intensive industries, including on energy, trade, carbon leakage, financing and lead markets, should be integrated into the upcoming Clean Industrial Deal and implemented with concrete measures as a matter of urgency. Alignment across different policies is crucial, and should be accompanied by sector-specific initiatives to enable the transition of each industry including steel, asks the European Steel Association.
Brussels, 05 September 2024 – The latest developments in the steel sector and across critical value chains are worrying signs of a steady deterioration, endangering the survival and the transition of steelmakers and their key manufacturing customers in Europe, such as automotive. A Clean Industrial Deal including swift and radical measures in EU industrial, energy and trade policies, is the last chance to ensure Europe’s prosperity and shield European industry from cheap imports driven by third countries’ unfair trade practices, overcapacity and lower climate ambition, urges the European Steel Association.
Brussels, 25 July 2024 – Major indicators in the European steel market show a steeper-than-expected downward trend, further impacting the outlook for this year and the next. Poor demand conditions, driven by ongoing factors such as high energy prices, persistent inflation, economic uncertainty and geopolitical tensions, are exacerbated by a manufacturing crisis affecting the largest steel-using sectors, including construction and automotive. According to EUROFER’s latest Economic and Steel Market Outlook, apparent steel consumption is further deteriorating. After a slump (-3.1%) in the first quarter of 2024, its rebound for the full year has been revised downwards (to +1.4% from +3.2%), as well as for 2025 (+4.1% from +5.6%). Similarly, output in steel-using sectors, after a decline in the first quarter (-1.9%), is projected to experience a deeper-than-expected recession (-1.6% from -1%). A recovery is anticipated only in 2025 (+2.3%). Steel imports continue to show historically high shares (27%).