The EU needs to cut red tape and reward companies that meet emissions reduction targets in order to incentivise costly investments into decarbonisation, participants said at this week’s Industry in Transition conference in Katowice.
Stefan Moritz, secretary general of the European Entrepreneurs “CEA-PME” confederation, bemoaned the European Commission has failed to get rid of administrative hurdles that delay investment. The EU has a Net-Zero Industry Act, but Moritz asked: “Can we have a net zero administration act?” He added: “Can we reward virtuous consumers, those who use less energy?” Guaranteeing tax breaks or financial rewards would incentivise investment, he suggested.
The comments came despite European commissioner for the internal market Thierry Breton opening the conference with a video message assuring the Commission is reducing bureaucracy, which should benefit green steel projects.
As for the impact of the transition on industry, Moritz asked: “Is it a cost or a benefit? We only see the costs now, but we want to make it a benefit. In the long run, we want to make sure renewables and nuclear are cheaper than energy today. But this has massive infrastructure costs and raw materials supply challenges. These very high investment costs must be diluted for the next 26 years in order to prevent an economic shock now, to get step by step to where we need to go.”
ArcelorMittal Poland chief executive Wojciech Koszuta stressed the “steel industry wants to stay in Europe … But we need to have tailwinds, or at least no headwinds. If we have lots of regulations, we need to adapt to them, yes. But this regulation should not stop businesses from functioning. The technology is there – a portion of Polish steel is already produced in electric arc furnaces. But this technology costs money and we will need to spend lots of money.”
Koszuta cautioned against the EU giving up its steel market share to imports. In 2012, imports accounted for 12% of the bloc’s steel consumption. In 2023, this had risen to 26%. “Is this a direction we want to go in? I think not,” the ceo said at the event attended by Kallanish. Europe needs to have captive steel supply to produce the infrastructure required for its renewable energy rollout, he added.
“Steel in Europe is currently too expensive. That makes our wind mills more expensive, our cars and building houses more costly,” Moritz pointed out. “We are now starting to buy wind turbines from China. We already buy batteries from China, already buy solar from China. What else do we want to buy from there?”
He also said the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism must cover not only steel imports but also imports of the final steel-using product, such as wind turbines from China.
Adam Smith Poland
