Cefic Publishes Chemical Industry's Manifesto ‘Teaming Up For A Climate-Neutral And Competitive Europe’

Cefic has released its manifesto ‘Teaming up for a Climate-Neutral and Competitive Europe’ outlining its key priorities for the new EU institutional cycle. The manifesto emphasises the industry’s commitment to supporting the EU Green Deal and the importance of a legislative environment that facilitates the industry’s transition to 2050.

Our chemicals industry’s transition to 2050 represents the biggest challenge in our history as we go climate-neutral, circular, digital and transition to safe and sustainable chemicals. This comes at a time when EU industry is facing an unfavourable investment climate and high energy prices.

Over four priorities, our industry urges the new European Commission term to address these challenges and create favourable conditions for private sector investments which support Europe’s industrial transformation. The manifesto calls to:

• Prioritise abundant renewable energy and raw material self sufficiency, including reliable energy sources, cross-border electrical power grid expansion, and partnerships with resource-rich countries. We also need to accelerate circular economy solutions to reduce dependence on imports.
• Scale up renewable carbon and circular carbon feedstocks, including the scale-up of available technologies like chemical recycling and the development of a comprehensive Circular Carbon Strategy that incentivises Carbon Capture and Use (CCU) and biobased feedstock.
• Make Europe attractive for industry investments, including boosting demand for low-carbon products, simplifying the State Aid framework, and establishing a competitive tax level across Europe.
• Leverage the Single Market for the Transition, including measures to address increased fragmentation caused by national implementation of EU legislation.