Germany launched this Tuesday a program worth tens of billions of euros to support the transformation of its heavy industry.
To achieve its goal of carbon neutrality in 2045, the country must decarbonize its vast industrial sector.
A complicated exercise, at a time when it is fighting to preserve its competitiveness after being cut off from cheap Russian gas.
It is also a response to the IRA, the major American plan to support the country's climate transition.
Called “carbon contract for difference”, this financing mechanism, currently unique in Europe, will help selected companies to offset the additional costs generated by new less polluting production processes.
The most energy-intensive industries releasing “more than ten kilotons of CO2 per year”, such as glass, metal, paper, steel or aluminum, will be able to submit their transformation project to the State which will choose the most environmentally ambitious and the least expensive.
A fifteen-year contract will then be signed: if during this period, production from less polluting techniques becomes more profitable than conventional production, in particular because the price of a tonne of CO2 on the European market has soared, the companies will reimburse the State for part of the aid.
The first phase of the program will make it possible to distribute the sum of four billion euros between the selected companies.
A second call for tenders will open in the fall and will cover an amount of 19 billion euros in subsidies.