Advancing the Net Zero Industry Act: CO₂ Value Europe’s Response to the European Commission

On 20^th February, we submitted feedback on the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) Delegated Act regarding the identification of sub-categories and primarily used components and the related Implementing Act.

On behalf of our members, our Policy Team proposed necessary changes and additions to the Annex of the NZIA to allow CCU technologies to fully benefit from the administrative burden reduction aimed with the legislation.

Our answer urges the European Commission to:

🔵 Rename the ‘CO₂ utilisation technologies’ sub-category to ‘Carbon utilisation technologies’ for greater accuracy: the proposed change will ensure CO utilisation is also covered.

🔵 Include commercially available CCU final products and primarily used components – which the draft Annex scarcely covers.

🔵 Amend the names of other elements in the draft Annex to make sure the intended Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) products are indeed included.

The NZIA, was published last June following its adoption by the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament. It aims to facilitate the manufacturing of key components for deploying net-zero technologies, including CCU, across Europe.

This milestone legislation identifies CO₂ utilisation technologies, carbon capture technologies, RFNBOs, and synthetic alternative fuels as essential for the EU’s clean-energy transition, and recognises them as net zero technologies. The inclusion of CO₂ utilisation technologies in particular, ensures CCU projects – such as e-fuels, CCU chemicals, and CO₂ mineralisation – benefit from streamlined administrative processes, faster permitting, and potential recognition as ‘strategic net zero projects’ at the national level.

Our response to the European Commission is another important step by the CCU community in clarifying key technical elements outlined in our document.

We will keep working together with our members to ensure a strong regulatory framework that fully supports CCU innovation and deployment!

Find our full response here.