Last month the EU President Ursula von der Leyen suggested that Europe must increase its investments in clean tech and green energy if it wants to compete against the US and China regarding Net Zero.
"a global green tech race has started," she said at a conference in Strasbourg in December. This is what we want. We reach our common goal when advanced economies compete for net zero. But this new competition also calls for a rethink on how we support our industries."
This follows an outline to member states on a strategy to relax EU state aid rules and centre it around a new public investment fund supported by European borrowing. This strategy would allow EU state members to increase direct investment into green tech.
Ahead of the proposed strategy, member states voted at the beginning of December for RepowerEU, a €300bn plan to help reduce the dependence on Russian energy, which can already be used to help poorer members of the EU increase investments into Clean Tech.
However, the EU Commission must establish a long-term plan to ensure fair competition within Europe so wealthier countries do not monopolise economically weaker member states. While some countries have come out in favour of the new strategy, some are vehemently opposed.
Meanwhile, negotiations between the EU and the US regarding specific discriminating tax rules and EU clean tech businesses to be exempt so that it falls in line with US protective subsidies for US clean tech businesses.
The effort to seek common ground and avoid a trade war continues, and the EU "shares" the US worries about China controlling critical materials needed for clean tech. This could lead to the US and EU forming a union over raw materials to help prevent unwanted competition.