As negotiations on the next Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) intensify, Europe has an opportunity to equip its industrial base with funding tools that turn climate ambition into real investment. For the cement sector, strategic for housing, infrastructure, and defence, meeting its ambition for net zero by 2050 means building the projects needed to decarbonise our plants this decade.
If Europe wants these investments on its own territory, its funding framework must make them possible. The foundations are there, from the Innovation Fund’s early successes to the proposal for a European Competitiveness (ECF) and a €100 billion Decarbonisation Bank. The priority now is to align these instruments and combine them with effective de-risking tools to deliver deployment at scale.
The Cement Action Plan, underscores the core challenge: EU funding offers many valuable instruments, but they remain fragmented, complex, and lack urgency when it comes to deployment. Innovation matters, but many of the technologies needed for deep emissions cuts in cement already exist. The challenge is whether Europe can roll them out quickly enough to meet its climate commitments.
The proposed ECF takes a bold step in the right direction by focusing on simplifying and integrating a variety of instruments and ensuring, through the concept of the “competitiveness seal” procedure, a one-stop shop between European and national funding. As the EU’s flagship tool for strategic sectors, the ECF can make deployment a clear priority in its industrial decarbonisation chapter.
Funding intensity must reflect the realities of capital‑intensive, hard-to-abate industries
While research, development and innovation are essential for Europe’s future, an almost doubling of Horizon Europe funding (€175 billion) compared to €67.8 billion (of which €41.2 billion for the Innovation Fund) for higher TRL industrial deployment may require rebalancing as investment decisions are made today against a 2050 horizon.
The upcoming proposal for the €100 billion Industrial Decarbonisation Fund, financed through Innovation Fund resources, ETS revenues and InvestEU, is being followed with strong interest by the cement sector.
Europe now has an opportunity to rebalance its approach. The Innovation Fund should evolve into a genuine Deployment Fund with significantly greater capacity, supporting technologies that are ready to scale. Funding intensity must reflect the realities of capital‑intensive, hard‑to‑abate industries.
A more strategic use of EU ETS revenues is essential. Between 2023 and 2034, the cement sector alone will contribute between €97 and €162 billion. Returning predictable 75% of these funds to a sector‑specific decarbonisation fund would create the investment certainty companies need to move ahead. Without this predictability, too many final investment decisions will remain pending.
Cement producers will only be able to cut emissions at scale if CO₂ transport and storage networks are available
De‑risking tools also need to work better. Guarantees, carbon contracts for difference and related de‑risking instruments need to be developed at a faster rate to help mitigate project supply chain risks. An investable decarbonisation business case needs more than funding. The Cement Action Plan lays out the enabling conditions for a successful transition, including continued access to waste and bio-waste as a combustion fuel source, regulatory certainty around CO2 use accounting, access to clinker substitution materials and fair access to CCS infrastructure.
Cement producers will only be able to cut emissions at scale if CO₂ transport and storage networks are available and Cement Europe is engaging on the forthcoming transport and infrastructure package.
The next MFF should be a strong foundation for Europe’s competitive industrial transition. The Cement Action Plan sets out a clear path: prioritise deployment within the ECF, recycle ETS revenues into decarbonisation, simplify access to funding programmes, and invest in the infrastructure enabling industrial transformation.
Europe has the technologies and the ambition. It now needs a funding framework that empowers industry to act. The coming MFF is the moment to deliver exactly that, and Cement Europe stands ready to contribute.
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