Empowering a clean and competitive EU industry Balancing decarbonisation, depollution and competitiveness is at the heart of the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal. For many years, the JRC has helped to support a clean and competitive EU industry. The JRC’s launch of the new Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) in June 2024 — as part of the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) — marked a significant step in Europe’s clean industrial transformation. JRC analysis on future grid capacity and its annual assessment of clean energy technologies have also helped to identify opportunities to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness. Impact on the economyMediates with industry and civil society to co-create environmental norms. INCITE will act as a “crystal ball” for change managers in industry as well as policymakers. Emerging techniques that might change a whole sector need to be identified very early. And this calls for a strong focus on the future in the Sevilla Process. Coordinated the Sevilla Process since its inception The Sevilla Process is a participatory stakeholder process that crafts the environmental norms to be met by large industrial installations in the EU. It relies on a structured and transparent exchange of information and analysis where Member States, industry, civil society and services of the European Commission come together to draw up and review Best Available Techniques (BAT) reference documents. Those documents underpin how public authorities grant industrial operating permits to over 70 000 large industrial installations in the EU. The JRC has organised and coordinated the Sevilla Process since it entered into force in support of the implementation of the IED. The steering of this cooperative process of co-creating environmental regulation applying to large agro-industrial activities has given the JRC a central role in helping EU industry cut its polluting emissions and contributing to a 40-75 % reduction of the main air pollutants over the last 15 years. Launched INCITE to accelerate innovation Building on this well-established Sevilla Process, the JRC launched INCITE in 2024 in cooperation with the Directorate-General for Environment (DG ENV). INCITE is a key component of the revised IED and aims to facilitate the uptake of innovative technologies that can lower emissions in the industrial sector. INCITE scans the horizon to identify emerging cutting-edge industrial environmental techniques and processes. If these environmental innovations are deemed ready for roll-out at industrial scale, they are fed into the well-established Sevilla Process. This information-sharing is crucial to support frontrunners, help stimulate investment and facilitate the uptake of innovative approaches, as Barbara Freund from the German Environment Ministry explains in her quote. By acting as the EU’s central reference point on innovative industrial techniques in Europe and beyond, INCITE plays a vital role in boosting cooperation and accelerating the industrial transformation. Assessed the EU’s position in the clean technology race The JRC also coordinates the Clean Energy Technology Observatory (CETO), which was launched in 2022 by the directorates-general for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) and for Energy (DG ENER). CETO monitors EU research and innovation activities on clean energy technologies. It assesses the competitiveness of the EU clean energy sector and its positioning in the global energy market. The series of CETO reports provide a crucial repository of techno- and socio-economic data on the most relevant technologies. They serve as primary source of data for the Commission’s annual progress reports on the competitiveness of clean energy technologies. Proposed solutions to lower energy prices To support a competitive and clean industry, the EU must be clear about how the growing deployment of renewables will affect the current and future grid capacity. The JRC investigated the different grid expansion scenarios in its study on redispatch and congestion management. This report, mentioned in Prof. Mario Draghi’s report on competitiveness, highlighted that uncoordinated renewable energy deployment could lead to significant grid congestion. This congestion is projected to result in costs ranging from EUR 11 to 26 billion by 2030 and from EUR 34 to 103 billion by 2040. To address this issue, the study proposes measures that could help lower electricity prices and enhance the competitiveness of European industries. Read the full report
Balancing decarbonisation, depollution and competitiveness is at the heart of the EU’s Clean Industrial Deal. For many years, the JRC has helped to support a clean and competitive EU industry. The JRC’s launch of the new Innovation Centre for Industrial Transformation and Emissions (INCITE) in June 2024 — as part of the revision of the Industrial Emissions Directive (IED) — marked a significant step in Europe’s clean industrial transformation. JRC analysis on future grid capacity and its annual assessment of clean energy technologies have also helped to identify opportunities to strengthen the EU’s competitiveness.
