EMIRI - A Call for Action in Horizon Europe on Advanced Materials for Clean Energy and Clean Mobility

 

Spring 2019


DESPITE ...

1 The role Advanced Materials play in enabling (driving costs down, increasing performance, increasing lifetime) clean energy & clean mobility technologies for the Energy Union and EU citizens’ comfort & health.

2 The share of Advanced Materials in the cost structure of clean energy & clean mobility technologies (beyond 50% today and trends will bring that share to 80+% making Advanced Materials a competitive factor for manufacturers of these crucial technologies)

3 The need for risk-sharing policies & instruments at EU level to support the long, risky (market & technology) and capital-intensive development cycle of Advanced Materials

4 The contribution of EU-based industry of Advanced Materials to our economy (more than 30 billion euro, 500.000 jobs, 3 billion euro annual investment in R&D and facilities)

5 The share of Advanced Materials industry in EU clean energy & clean mobility jobs (at least 50%) and the importance for SMEs and start-ups to rely on a strong industry & research ecosystem to collaborate and co-innovate with

6 The excellent collaboration between EMIRI and EU DG R&I in Horizon 2020 ( based on EMIRI strategic innovation roadmap called EMERIT) which led to increased EU support to Advanced Materials for clean energy & clean mobility

 

Moreover, potential developments regarding EU Commission’s forthcoming Horizon Europe could affect negatively the EU support to Advanced Materials and other Key Enabling Technologies. This would result in an impact on European industrial leadership ... Europe is not in a position to afford such a development.

IN FIELD OF CLEAN ENERGY & CLEAN MOBILITY TECHNOLOGIES, ANY DETERIORATION IN EU SUPPORT FOR INDUSTRIAL LEADERSHIP IN KEY ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES SUCH AS ADVANCED MATERIALS WILL LEAD UNDOUBTEDLY TO EU NOT DELIVERING ON ITS ENERGY UNION PROMISES:

1 Europe not generating the much-needed economic growth & jobs for citizens who strongly supported European transition to clean energy & clean mobility technologies
EU is losing leadership in clean energy & clean mobility techs leading to deindustrialization and job destruction (net loss of 100.000 jobs in 2013-2016) while China & USA are thriving. Moreover, without presence in EU of a globally exporting Advanced Materials industry, the job loss would have been worse (EU-based Advanced Materials industry created 40-50.000 jobs over 2013-2016 while the downstream part of clean energy value chains lost 140-150.000 jobs). Our industry is actually slowing down EU loss of leadership in clean energy & clean mobility techs and is undoubtedly the foundation on which EU can regain global market share in the field.

2 Europe weakening its innovation ecosystem in technologies critical to climate change mitigation
With China spending more than 2.5 billion euro annually on clean energy & clean mobility technologies, EU is now challenged. The situation is worsened by fragmentation, unclarity and instability of European R&I support to its ecosystem. In China, Advanced Materials are among the 10 priorities of "China Manufacturing 2025" ... This is not the case in Europe.

3 Europe replacing dependence on fossil fuels from outside EU by dependence on imported clean energy & clean mobility technologies
Today more than 50% of industrial players in top 10 of manufacturers of wind turbines, solar modules, batteries, ... are Asian (in most cases Chinese) ... Leading to EU representing today less than 15% of jobs in the field in 2016 (1.16 million jobs) while China is already at 44% (3.65 million jobs). Without EU action, EU will pass below 1.000.000 jobs in clean energy by 2020 (10% of global jobs in the field) and market opportunities of fighting climate change will not benefit EU citizens.

WE CALL ON EU COMMISSION, EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND MEMBER STATES TO FURTHER SUPPORT ADVANCED MATERIALS AND OTHER KETS AND SHOW AMBITION IN HORIZON EUROPE TO PRESERVE EUROPEAN TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT LEADERSHIP, RE-INDUSTRIALIZE EU IN CLEAN ENERGY & CLEAN MOBILITY TECHNOLOGIES, DELIVER ON THE ENERGY UNION PROMISES AND PROVIDE ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITIES TO CITIZENS.


EMIRI (the Energy Materials Industrial Research Initiative) represents more than 60 organizations (industry, research, associations) active in Advanced Materials for clean energy & clean mobility technologies. The association contributes to industrial leadership of developers, producers and key users of Advanced Materials by shaping an appropriate European innovation, energy and industrial policy framework. For more information, contact Philippe JACQUES at philippe.jacques@emiri.eu, visit: www.emiri.eu