The European Commission has proposed the Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) with an ambitious objective: increasing the share of manufacturing in the EU’s GDP from 14.3% in 2024 to 20% by 2035.
To support this goal, the proposal aims to:
🔹 Speed up permitting for strategic industrial projects
🔹 Create lead markets through “Made in Europe” and low-carbon criteria in public procurement and support schemes
🔹 Introduce conditions for large foreign direct investments (>€100M) in strategic sectors
🔹 Establish industrial manufacturing acceleration areas in each Member State
For the Carbon Capture and Utilisation (CCU) value chain, the proposal brings an important development: CCU is explicitly mentioned, and a definition of sustainable carbon is introduced, a key ask from CO₂ Value Europe.
“Sustainable carbon sources” include sustainable biomass, waste, and carbon from captured CO₂ emissions. One point to address in upcoming negotiations will be the current omission of carbon monoxide (CO) from this definition, although captured CO is key in several CCU pathways including non-fossil chemical and fuels (e.g. RCF) production.
Although the proposal tables what can become very useful precedents for supporting clean industrial investments in Europe, it is not enough. It needs to go further in supporting emissions-reducing technologies, and its current shape is extremely complex. The IAA should stay simple, understandable, and applicable for project developers to have added value.
CO₂ Value Europe looks forward to engaging with policymakers and stakeholders as discussions move forward.
Find our position paper here.
