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The E.U. plans to fight for its place in the clean energy race.
Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission, announced at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday that the European Union will create extensive new clean energy subsidies to keep firms from moving to the U.S. and China.
The goal is for the E.U. to become a leader in the transition to a clean economy and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 — and von der Leyen said that both carrots and sticks were on the table.
“The net-zero transformation is already causing huge industrial, economic and geopolitical shifts — by far the quickest and the most pronounced in our lifetime,” der Leyen said. “It is changing the nature of work and the shape of our industry.”
The E.U.’s “Green Deal” industrial plan aims to make Europe a center for clean technology and innovation and to counter aggressive attempts to attract E.U. industrial capacities away to China and elsewhere.
In particular, the E.U. worries that its green tech firms will move to the United States, which last summer passed a $369 billion scheme to subsidize green production.
But she also singled out China, which she said “dominates global production in sectors like electric vehicles or solar panels … with the promise of cheap energy, low labor costs and a more lenient regulatory environment.
