Our industry’s transition to deliver on the European Green Deal

Petrochemicals Europe’s General assembly held in March was the opportunity to discuss with our sector group members the revised mission, vision, and priorities that reflect how the industry is transitioning to deliver on the European Green Deal. One of the main goals is to demonstrate the progress across our priorities and the key role that the industry plays in achieving EU’s climate-neutrality objective by 2050. To do so, we proudly showcase many sustainable initiatives carried out by our member companies that contribute to a low-carbon and circular economy in the fields of (cracker) electrification, recycling, innovation, hydrogen etc. On the day of th GA, the signature of an agreement to create the first electrically heated steam cracker in the world was announced. Three of our member companies, BASF, SABIC and Linde, agreed to develop and demonstrate solutions for electrically heated steam cracker furnaces to reduce CO2 emissions within the chemical industry.

The General Assembly also featured two external guest speakers: Jacques Vandermeiren, CEO, Antwerp Port Authority and Manon Janssen, Climate Director, Antwerp. On ‘The road to a climate neutral Port’ theme, they showed a plan and some concrete examples of how industries are implementing the EU’s climate-neutral objective by 2050. Manon explained the crucial role the industry is playing in the Dutch climate agreement’s objective to reduce CO2 emissions by 49% by 2030 in the Netherlands. Jacques showed in which projects petrochemical companies are involved at the Port of Antwerp in the fields of circular economy, carbon capture utilisation and sequestration and green methanol. Pioneering and proceeding together, being reasonable and working with partnerships are some key to success.

Petrochemicals Europe’s members are addressing issues, taking up the challenges and seizing the opportunities that will arise from the European Green Deal roll-out.

The full mission, vision and priorities are available HERE.

For further information on the e-cracker agreement, read BASF press release.