This ECRN paper presents a holistic strategy to enhance the competitiveness and sustainability of the chemical industry in Europe. The chemical industry has a critical role in driving long-term economic growth and environmental protection. This paper highlights the need for strategic actions and regulatory updates to address the challenges the sector is currently facing.
Ensuring a continuous basic chemical production is key for our strategic autonomy and essential for our critical infrastructures. Although the Covid-19 crisis and the recent invasion of Ukraine did not start the reshoring trend, they are indeed accelerating it. We look into the recent reshoring trend and analyse its possible positive impact on the EU and Regional level.
As a core member, ECRN is actively participating in drafting the Scoping Paper. Therefore, the Network has put together a ECRN contribution - JTP WG Chemicals to present its inputs in a clear and structured manner not just to the other members of the Working Group, but also to the public and all the external stakeholders.
As a core member, ECRN is actively participating in drafting the Scoping Paper. Therefore, the Network has put together a ECRN contribution - JTP WG Chemicals to present its inputs in a clear and structured manner not just to the other members of the Working Group, but also to the public and all the external stakeholders.
As recognised by the EU Hydrogen Strategy, renewable hydrogen is a key component for success in Europe’s energy transition. Hydrogen has various applications across industries and economic sectors and it can be used as a feedstock, fuel, or an energy carrier and storage. Most importantly, it is essential to decarbonise energy-intensive industries and to phase regions out of coal or natural gas, without jeopardizing economic growth, the competitiveness of our companies or our social prosperity.
The chemical industry will play an important role in the transition to a circular bio-based economy in Europe. From the design phase of products to their end-of-life, the chemical industry can offer innovative solutions in every stage of the life-cycle of products. However, the chemical sector currently represents only 5% of the bio-based economy and 1% of biofuels production.
In the EU, the potential for recycling plastic waste remains largely unexploited. Only 15% of EU-collected plastic waste in the EU finds its way back into the EU plastic market. Chemical recycling can treat waste that can’t be recycled mechanically, and therefore plays an important role in the mix of solutions to tackle the problem of plastic waste.
The EU chemical industry can be a key contributor to the energy transition, climate change mitigation, and to other EU policy objectives, like the circular economy and sustainability. However, to successfully achieve a green chemical transformation, a complete restructure of the entire value chain is required, spanning basic chemicals, specialty and fine chemicals as well as consumer chemicals.
ECRN Cohesion Policy Position Paper (2018)
