EuLA’s feedback on the European Commission’s public consultation on the Net-Zero Industry Act

Brussels, 27 June 2023

The European Commission published the Net Zero Industry Act (NZIA) as a key element of the Green Deal Industrial Plan. The European Lime Association welcomes the proposal, as the NZIA recognizes that energy intensive industries, such as lime, require access to technologies such as carbon capture and storage to remain competitive and reach decarbonisation goals. It is encouraging to see the NZIA recognize that the lack of CO2 infrastructure is the ‘single largest bottleneck for CO2 capture investments to materialize,’ which compliments the objective set in Article 16 of the proposal, defining an annual injection capacity of at least 50 million tonnes of CO2 by 2030 in storage sites across the EU. The NZIA will be instrumental for the improvement of the whole European industry’s competitiveness, and for that reason, EuLA calls on legislators to consider the following proposals on how to further enhance the deployment of renewable and low-carbon technologies to help support the resilience of the EU industry.

The implementation of the NZIA presents an opportunity to establish a regulatory framework that facilitates the transformation of European industries such as lime. In order to further enhance the deployment of renewable and low-carbon technologies, EuLA calls on legislators to consider expanding the list of strategic technologies to include CCU, and facilitate a comprehensive approach to permitting across technological value chains. EuLA asks for the support of EU regulators in adopting a strategic approach that spans various policies, aiming to safeguard the competitiveness of our industry and maximize its contribution to the ongoing energy transition.