The European Commission has just presented what can be interpreted as a response to the Americans’ “US Inflation Reduction Act”.

The EU’s new “A Green Deal Industrial Plan for the Net-Zero Age” is, like the US Inflation Reduction Act, aimed in part at supporting the production of green fuels, ensuring a green infrastructure and accelerating the green transition.

Danish Shipping regards the new development positively, as this could have a major impact on the green transformation of shipping.

“Start-up support is one of the keys to achieving a sufficiently high tempo in the green transition. We saw it with the wind turbines in Denmark, and it is the same with large-scale production of green fuels. So we are largely positive about the plans for support that the European Commission has now presented,” says Anne H. Steffensen, CEO of Danish Shipping.

According to the European Commission, there is a need for greater investment before 2030 in the production of net-zero technologies, given the ambitious EU goals and international competition.

The funding must be used to produce net-zero technologies such as solar and wind energy, batteries, heat pumps, hydrogen and the capture and storage of CO2. The funds must be made available through a more flexible approach to state aid and via existing EU schemes, where the EU’s innovation fund is central to shipping.

There are also plans to introduce a ceiling on case-processing times in different approval procedures for major projects. The idea of a ‘one-stop-shop’ approach in the member states is specifically mentioned.

“The processing time for approvals and permits can be a stumbling block in the fight to get the green transition up to speed. It is a good signal from the EU that we must strive to put a ceiling on the processing time for approvals,” says Anne H. Steffensen.

“I hope that the EU’s green initiative will become an instrument to ensure that Denmark, as one of the world’s leading shipping nations, can obtain sufficient green fuel for the growing fleet of green ships. Today, one of the most important challenges for the green transformation of shipping is that there is no certainty about the quantity of green fuels available,” says Anne H. Steffensen.