The Future Cleantech Priorities report is an interdisciplinary report that focuses on key takeaways from the Future Cleantech Festival and actionable policy recommendations, based on both the Festival and our overall work, for the new EU Agenda. Some key recommendations are:
💡 Innovation:
Strengthen R&D and innovation funding: Prioritize funding for cleantech research and innovation by allocating more resources to Horizon Europe in the next programming period. Increase funding for the Innovation Fund and the EIC program to support a diverse range of technical solutions and fasten access to financing for cleantech startups.
🛫 Transport:
Maintain the momentum: The European Green Deal has been a momentous achievement; however, the hard work is just starting to meet ambitious targets within the EU. Policymakers must maintain the momentum as revisions of important legislation and increased funding support for innovation will be crucial to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. Regulation must also expand to include aviation’s hidden emissions and address contrails.
🏗 Construction:
Switching from prescriptive to performance-based standards: Current prescriptive standards are simple to use but limit innovation, as low-carbon cements and concretes (or other materials) might not comply. Performance-based standards, while requiring some adaptation for industry to follow, allow more solutions to compete fairly and thus open up the market to innovation. Beyond lower carbon materials, standards should also incentivize structural efficiency and enhance the sustainability of the entire building lifecycle.
⚡ Future Energy System:
Adopt a system-wide approach: Decarbonizing the power sector requires a comprehensive strategy that assesses all components of the future energy system. This strategy should integrate flexibility tools such as long-duration energy storage (including thermal storage for heat applications), digitalization, clean firm power, and enhanced grid infrastructure.
Learn more about our policy recommendations, and our key takeaways, here!