EU chief: Sustainable Building is Essential

Construction Tech Review | Monday, December 12, 2022

The European Commission’s executive vice president has described the importance of construction to the European Union’s Green Deal ambitions.

FREMONT, CA: The executive vice president of the European Commission has discussed the significance of construction to the goals of the European Union's Green Deal. Organisations are in a pivotal period for Europe, democracy, and freedom, remarks made at the recent General Assembly of the European Construction Industry Federation (FIEC).

The building sector will be crucial to Ukraine's reconstruction, ideally sooner rather than later. At the same time, a fundamental revolution is taking place in how they construct buildings and what we do in the built environment. Every new structure needs to be climate neutral. And in the existing built environment, firms need to renovate, insulate, and put in new energy systems.

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This is a phenomenal opportunity for the building sector. They will try to build the future world with clear regulations and supporting actions in vital areas like permitting training and digitalisation. In response to a question regarding the problems the sector is now facing, FIEC should help them create a regulation with which contractors can work and continue establishing a stronger interaction between the sector and policymakers to ensure that EU projects are a success.

The president of the FIEC stated that the European construction sector is behind the Green Deal. They can assist in implementing the EU Green Deal since organisations are the answer, not the problem.

To encourage the generation of green hydrogen, the European Commission (EC) will grant Carbon Contracts for Difference (CCfD) subsidies. The initiative aims to promote a full switchover of the existing hydrogen production in industrial processes from natural gas to renewables and the transition to hydrogen-based production processes in new industrial sectors like steel-making.

A financial contribution will be made to the programme from the EU Innovation Fund.

The REPowerEU plan, which aims to produce 10 million tonnes of green hydrogen throughout the EU by 2030, will include this. There will be an additional import of 10 million tonnes.

Governments would compensate end users under the CCfD programme with a guaranteed sum in exchange for reducing CO2 emissions. This would include any savings from forgoing the ETS's carbon price as well as a top-up subsidy to bring the price up to the strike price established with the CCfD. In essence, these initiatives will allow the market to purchase green hydrogen generated from water for the same price as grey hydrogen produced from natural gas.

200 GW of electrolysers and 600 GW of new wind and solar energy will be needed to produce the H2 fuel.

Additionally, there are plans to increase hydrogen production through state funding through IPCEIs, or Important Projects of Common European Interest. A study to quadruple the number of H2 manufacturing centres is now underway.

In addition to publishing draught laws to define and accelerate renewable hydrogen production and market growth inside Europe, the EC stated that it is committed to finalising the regulatory framework for hydrogen.

Additionally, there are plans to create three significant hydrogen import routes via the North Sea, the Mediterranean, and, if feasible, Ukraine.

Plans to build fuel distribution infrastructure will support this. The EC recommended that work should also pick up speed with the industry on technical hydrogen standards and expedite authorisation procedures for hydrogen infrastructure.

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