EU aims to produce 40% of bloc's clean tech by 2030

BRUSSELS - The European Union (EU) aims to produce 40 percent of its own clean technologies by 2030, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday.

"The global market for net-zero technologies is set to triple by 2030. In other words: the race is on. We must get our act together if we want to stay frontrunners. This is what the Green Deal Industrial Plan is all about," von der Leyen told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The Net-Zero Industry Act and the Critical Raw Materials Act, two cornerstones of the Green Deal Industrial Plan, will be proposed this week by the European Commission.

The target of producing 40 percent of EU's clean tech by 2030 comes under the Net-Zero Industry Act, which aims to speed up and simplify processes for industry, as well as providing funding.

Under the Critical Raw Materials Act, more ores and minerals will be extracted in Europe. The EU wants to boost its processing capacity to at least 40 percent of its annual consumption, and recycle critical materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel from batteries.

"These minerals power phones and electric vehicles, chips and batteries, solar panels and wind turbines. They cannot function without critical raw materials. And the demand for critical raw materials will dramatically rise over the next several years and decades," she explained.

To ensure that EU industry can deliver on these ambitions, the EU is also set to boost research and development.

"To improve competitiveness, we need to increase our research spending target, ensure regulation enables business and reduce unnecessary reporting obligations," said von der Leyen.

The current target is to spend three percent of the EU's gross domestic product on research and development by 2030. However, von der Leyen and the Swedish presidency of the Council of the EU will propose raising this target in a bid to stay competitive.

Cutting down on red tape should also improve the EU's competitiveness. Proposals will be put forward by autumn, with the goal of reducing reporting requirements by 25 percent.