new economy

　　

On March 16, the European Commission issued three documents, "Net Zero Industry Act", "Key Raw Materials Act" and "European Hydrogen Bank Plan". As part of the "Green Deal Industry Plan" proposed by the EU at the beginning of this year, this series of "green initiatives" aims to ensure that the EU is not only a leader in cutting carbon emissions, but also a leader in the technology needed to achieve this goal. Its policy direction and related implications have attracted wide attention.

The Green Deal Industry Programme aims to provide an enabling policy environment to accelerate the production and manufacturing of net-zero technologies and products in Europe. The industrial plan is a continuation of the previous European Green Deal and REPowerEU. One is to provide a clearer regulatory framework. The Green Deal Industry Plan includes the Net Zero Industry Act, the Critical Raw Materials Act and the Electricity Market Design Reform Plan, which form a policy portfolio. Second, provide financing and investment facilities for clean technology production. In the early stage, based on the common interest of Europe, the EU combined many single state aid projects into one project, forming the Important Project of Common Interest for Europe (IPCEI), involving new energy related fields such as microelectronics, photovoltaic, battery, semiconductor and hydrogen energy. However, its high requirements for project qualification and complicated approval process affected the promotion efficiency. The new plan eases procedural requirements for state subsidies in Green Deal areas and simplifies approval procedures for projects of common interest to Europe. Third, improve the skills of the workforce. The EU estimates that 30 to 40 percent of jobs will be affected in the green transition. The EU plans to set up a net-zero industrial college to train workers in relevant skills to adapt to the new industrial situation. Fourth, we need to open up trade to ensure supply chain resilience. By strengthening cooperation with relevant trading partners, the EU should build an international cooperation network in clean technology, while maintaining fair competition in the EU single market and preventing the subsidy policies of extra-regional economies from giving unfair competitive advantages to EU market players.

Recently, the EU's actions in the field of green transformation are speeding up, which will have a far-reaching impact on the green economy transformation of EU countries and even the world. It is mainly reflected in the following aspects:

Contribute to the continuous updating of green and clean energy technologies in the EU region. The centralized launch of the Green New Deal will greatly boost the technological innovation and business model change in the field of green energy in the EU. In the early stage, under the influence of the US Inflation Reduction Act, some European enterprises are planning to increase their investment in the US market in order to obtain the relevant support policies of the US government. This New Deal will greatly stabilize the confidence of relevant entities within the EU, and attract external market entities to increase their medium - and long-term investment in the EU market.

It will help improve the utilization effect of relevant policy funds within the EU. In the early stage, in order to achieve multiple objectives within the EU, a number of funds were set up respectively. However, relevant plans are scattered, and it is difficult to give full play to the overall driving role, which affects the pace of EU green economy transformation. In particular, the review process of related fund projects is complicated and the approval cycle is long, which seriously affects the speed of related projects.

Help to improve the stability of the energy supply system. Through a series of policies, the EU has accelerated the diversification of its energy supply system and further reduced its dependence on Russian energy. At the same time, the EU has also strengthened its control over important basic raw materials related to the green economic transformation (including strategic resources such as rare earth and lithium ore), so as to reduce the dependence of the green energy industry chain on a single source of external raw materials and ensure the sustainability and stability of its green economic development.

For the series of policy measures introduced by the EU to help the green transformation of the economy, in the short term, it seems to be due to the impact of the energy crisis in Europe caused by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the introduction of the Inflation Reduction Act in the United States. However, if we extend the time dimension, we will find that both views are biased. Combined with the EU's governance architecture, the current overall policy framework of the EU begins with the new term of the EU Parliament in May 2019. At the start of its term, the European Commission identified "building a climate-neutral, green, fair and inclusive Europe" as one of its four priorities for 2019-2024. Therefore, the green economic development initiatives implemented by the EU are a sustainable arrangement, not a quick fix.

Under the general trend of green economic transformation and development, the importance of green energy transformation and new energy industry development is self-evident, which is also the starting point of a new round of industrial competition and industrial transformation. As the IEA notes in its 2023 Energy Technology Outlook, "The energy world is at the dawn of a new industrial era - the era of clean energy technology manufacturing".

It can be predicted that the European Union will continue to strengthen its policies in the field of promoting green economic transformation and development, and the spillover effects of relevant policies will also appear one after another. For China, it should fully learn from the EU's policy ideas on green economy. While fully tapping the development potential of green economy, China should continue to pay attention to related risks and potential problems. Based on the new development pattern of "double cycle", China should make continuous efforts to smoothly realize the goal of "double carbon".