Working Group
Innovation

Mission

The energy transition will involve large investments that can only be made if European industry can preserve its competitiveness. Therefore, cost-efficient energy policies and proactive innovation policies are necessary. Therefore the mission is a trilateral positioning towards European institutions by developing a common trilateral approach for a competitive, secure and sustainable energy mix and to support innovation on energy and feedstock by removing hurdles in energy and climate policies.

Chair

Els Brouwers
energy@trilateral-chemical-region.eu
Participants
Companies

Air Liquide, Covestro, Currenta, Aurubis,  USG company, Brightlands, BASF, Lyondell basell, Eurochem, Borealis, Vynova, INEOS, Kaneka, 
Associations

essenscia,VCI NRW, VNCI
Timeline 
Dec. 2017

• 1st WG Workshop: Kick-off
2018

• 22/6/18: Roundtable on impact, challenges and road ahead of energy in the chemical industry

• preparations and finalisation position paper on a future proof ETS
2019

• Preparation of study proposal  “Energy need for a climate neutral Europe in a globalised economy”
Interim results
 Position paper on the valorisation of carbon capture and Utilisation (CCU) in ETS.  Innovative solutions that are based on recycling or storage of carbon-emissions are part of the range of solutions for a climate neutral economy. Additional emissions in the atmosphere originating from a fossil application should be accounted for, but not more than once. A first step is to remove policy hurdles to allow the implementation of solutions that avoid additional fossil carbon emissions. Specifically in ETS, no structural signals are given by ETS to go circular. The paper focuses on innovation hurdles in climate policy such as the EU emission trading scheme (ETS) and makes suggestions how to make ETS future proof. 

Work in progress

One of the priorities of the WG energy is to develop a common trilateral approach for a competitive, secure and sustainable energy mix. Insight on future trends in the energy systems and their economic impact on the trilateral chemical industry is very useful in this. 

The working group is therefore elaborating on a proposal for a study  “Energy needs for a climate neutral Europe in a globalised economy” to  get a coherent view on the economic/societal energy demand in the future based on available studies and additional modelling.

This study would focus on energy needs and availability in the trilateral region including key technologies and solutions, their impact on energy system and adequacy costs.