€3.4 billion for clean technology: EU selects 77 projects

The European Commission announced on 19 October that it had selected 77 net-zero technology projects for €3.4 billion in support from the EU Innovation Fund. Sixteen of the selected projects are in France, with others spread across Europe.

The fund draws on revenue from the EU emissions trading system. The Commission estimates that, if implemented, the 77 projects could avoid greenhouse gases equivalent to roughly 290 million tonnes during their first ten years of operation. That is a projected future effect, not a reduction already achieved. Construction, financing and independent measurement still separate selection from impact.

For Kazakhstan, the decision is an example of carbon-pricing revenue being channelled into industrial modernisation; it does not promise direct funding to Kazakhstani projects. The meaningful follow-up is which facilities are built, when they start operating and what emissions they actually avoid. Those figures will show whether the forecast holds.

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Source: European Commission.