What Europe Needs to Compete With Biden's IRA
A nimbler regulatory regime would put the continent back on the map for renewables investment. But leaders need to act fast.
Transitioning.
Photographer: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images EuropeAt the European Union leaders’ summit in Brussels this week, member states will debate the Green Deal Industrial Plan — the bloc’s answer to the US’s $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
The EU plan to boost clean tech and industrial innovation is based around four pillars: funding, trade, skills and simplifying regulation. Arguments are already brewing over proposed changes to state aid rules and funding. But if member states ought to agree on anything, it’s that the energy transition remains tangled up in red tape and desperately needs freeing. As if to prove the point, Denmark suspended all new applications for offshore wind farms on Tuesday over concerns it may be breaching EU law.