The European Green Deal sets out an exciting vision for the EU. Delivering climate targets alongside economic growth will be a major challenge and will only be achieved through innovating in all aspects of our lives. The innovations required will not happen without support from EU funds. However, the financial support available is constrained, particularly given the costs of responding to the COVID-19 crisis. A new process is required to prioritise effort and ensure money is spent wisely.
Innovation priorities fall into two categories:
- Incremental: Deployment activities that must be accelerated to keep decarbonisation on-track.
- Breakthrough: Questions that must be answered to create high value future pathways to net zero.
An independent centre of technical expertise should be established to produce a rigorous science-based assessment of innovation priorities. In the absence of such analysis, it will be necessary to rely on an intuitive understanding of the challenges and opportunities ahead.
This paper undertakes an intuitive assessment to identify key priorities for energy (including buildings), transport, industry and agriculture and land use. It also identifies important issues that cut across sectors.
Read the full briefing here: Innovation Priorities to Deliver Climate Neutrality.
Photo by Karsten Würth on Unsplash.
This project has received funding from the LIFE Programme of the European Union.
