Industrial decarbonisation in Europe will depend on the right economic incentives and policy frameworks being put in place, rather than simply relying on new technologies, César Muñoz, lead for climate change and alliances at Iberdrola has said.
Muñoz was among the speakers at the Economist Enterprise Sustainability Week Europe Summit in Amsterdam last month, where he spoke about how multi-stakeholder initiatives, such as the Alianza Q-Cero, or Q-Zero Alliance, in Spain, are co-ordinating actions to scale decarbonisation solutions quickly, unlock investment and protect industrial competitiveness.
Key challenges
As he explained, industrial decarbonisation is critical to addressing three challenges facing Europe: climate change, energy security and the need to retain industrial capacity to support regional strategic autonomy.
“Industrial decarbonisation is key because it sits in the intersection of three pressing needs that Europe has to solve,” he said.
“The point in the discussion now is around how we create the framework, how we create the economic signal, and how we develop the policies in order to scale up these efforts.”
The QZero Alliance
The QZero Alliance brings together more than 170 companies across Spain to identify barriers to industrial decarbonisation and develop recommendations for policymakers. Launched three years ago by the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM), Tecnalia, and Iberdrola, the initiative aims to give energy-consuming businesses a central role in discussions about the transition.
The alliance was established partly in response to what Muñoz described as an imbalance in existing discussions, which were often led by utilities, technology providers and equipment manufacturers, while others were left behind.
“First of all, we are listening to industry,” he explained. “This may seem obvious, but this was not happening. We created some working groups in order to detect specific barriers, and challenges that should be overcome.”
Secondly, the initiative sought to showcase decarbonisation efforts across other sectors, which has acted as positive reinforcement for those setting out on their decarbonisation journey.
“This is quite an important factor,” said Muñoz. “Because when industry wants to decarbonise, they need certainty. So, having examples of other industries that have successfully decarbonised reduces their perception of risk. This has proven very useful in order to push the industry to adopt new projects.”
The Q-Zero Alliance’s activities include listening to businesses through working groups to identify specific barriers, sharing information about changing regulations and technologies, and, finally, connecting industrial companies with technology providers, financial institutions, public bodies and policymakers.
“We don’t debate for the sake of debate,” he added. “We want to extract the practical experience of the industry.” Read more here.
