Commission earmarks €4.6 billion to boost net-zero technologies, electric vehicle battery cell manufacturing and renewable hydrogen under the Innovation Fund

On Tuesday, in the first week of its new mandate, the Commission is stepping up its efforts to boost net-zero technologies that are key to ensure the competitiveness of European industry while meeting agreed climate goals.

It is launching two new calls for proposals with a budget of €3.4 billion to accelerate the deployment of innovative decarbonisation technologies in Europe, including electric vehicles batteries. It is also launching the second auction of the European Hydrogen Bank to accelerate the production of renewable hydrogen in the European Economic Area (EEA) with a budget of €1.2 billion from EU funds, plus over €700 million from three Member States. Both calls for proposals and the auction are financed by the Innovation Fund, using revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS).

All three calls include new resilience criteria to boost European industry. The batteries call and hydrogen bank auction will also include specific resilience criteria to protect Europe against dependency on a single supplier.

Also today, the Commission and the European Investment Bank (EIB) have initiated a new partnership to support investments in the EU’s battery manufacturing sector.

Source: European Commission