Clean Industrial Deal – ECOS recommendations

This new deal should include a focus on zero pollution, including the effects of toxic pollution on human health and the environment, and clean material streams in the circular economy, with a priority on conserving natural resources and contributing to ecosystem restoration. 

While industry is key to Europe’s economic vitality, it comes with significant environmental and health impacts. In this next period, the green industrial transformation, with its emphases on decarbonisation, resource use reduction, electrification, efficiency, and true circularity, must go hand-in-hand with the safeguarding of social security, biodiversity, and environmental health. Clear, ambitious, and legally binding targets for reducing emissions, resources use and pollution will be key to success. The EU must transition towards a toxic-free future, curtail absolute energy and resource demand, phase out fossil fuels, and avoid regrettable and harmful false solutions.

This deal should focus on creating the enabling conditions to deeply transform European to make it fit for addressing the environmental challenges ahead. The EU should promote demand for sustainable products by stimulating green public procurement and by creating lead markets, e.g. for low-impact steel. Any kind of support should be strictly related to a conditionality mechanism that would incentivise industry to move forward in its drive to sustainability and to reduce emissions, resources use and pollution, and should in no way unfairly favour incumbents. Both the Draghi and Letta reports demand greater attention to the European industrial ecosystem, calling for more support. This support needs to be clearly directed towards making European industry more aligned with climate and environment goals.