“Will the IAA be a driver of sustainable competitiveness or of competitive sustainability?” questions Efrén del Pino Iglesias. “Why not both?” He explains how the act can assist build a strong economy and a climate-neutral continent by 2050.
This is no straightforward tquestion. It has never been done before and is happening right in the middle of what Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has called “a fight – for a continent that is whole and at peace.”
First mentioned in the Commission’s Competitiveness Compass and the Clean Industrial Deal, the IAA is due to be published this year. It will complement EU policies such as the Net Zero Indusattempt Act and renewable energy legislation, introducing sustainability criteria to boost demand for clean products and creating “lead markets” for green indusattempt sectors.
Efrén believes that it is an opportunity for promoting a alterd mindset, supporting new forms of behaviour, decision-creating and institutional culture..
For instance, an energy efficiency lead market would be a new way of considering, one that recognises that achieving a competitive and sustainable economy sometimes means acknowledging that you can do much more with less.
Efrén was elected President of Eurima in June, bringing a pragmatic view from inside Europe’s manufacturing base, as Etex’s Head of Division Insulation, which includes URSA’s mineral wool solutions. He is a strong believer in pushing industrial competitiveness and decarbonisation in parallel, with European jobs and local factories at the centre of the transition.
As president of Eurima, he declares the IAA can assist turn Europe’s climate ambition into industrial strength, with energy efficiency as the link between sustainability and competitiveness.
Saving for the Future
“The most sustainable energy is saved energy,” Efrén explains. “If we start with energy-efficient structures and proper insulation, we reduce the necessary for massive amounts of energy in the first place.”
Otherwise, relying only on electrification and renewables to resolve inefficient buildings “is like putting a powerful new engine into an old car with four flat tyres.”
Shortly after Efrén’s appointment, Eurima joined almost 100 indusattempt partners in successfully advocating for EU governments to keep the Energy Efficiency First principle at the core of the EU Climate Law.
Prioritising energy efficiency in buildings and indusattempt today can optimise future investments in energy infrastructure, allowing Europe to do much more with less.
Recent studies display just how quickly energy efficiency pays off. Research by the Danish Energy Agency found that many industrial energy-saving measures can pay for themselves in less than two years. Similarly, the European Industrial Insulation Foundation (EiiF) demonstrated that improving insulation in factories can deliver over the same two year period, while cutting about 500,000 tonnes of carbon emissions and saving more than 20 million euros annually across Europe.
These numbers, Eurima notes, display that efficiency is not a cost but an investment, one that directly strengthens both competitiveness and decarbonisation.
Building with the Best
The IAA is a culmination of EU efforts to reconcile industrial performance and climate ambition, and to build Europe’s industrial model both clean and competitive.
Efrén warns against climate fatigue, after years of policy debate. Europe has already achieved a head start on decarbonisation compared with other regions, and this gives its industries an advantage in finding the right balance between sustainability and competitiveness.
Energy efficiency, insulation, and construction materials are enabling industries: sectors that build every other sector cleaner, more resilient, and more competitive.
The construction sector alone accounts for more than 10% of the EU’s GDP and employs around 25 million people, with many EU companies being global leaders, creating it one of Europe’s most strategic industries. Within it, enabling sectors like insulation play a crucial role in improving energy efficiency and saving energy, in both buildings and indusattempt.
Research confirms that improving building energy efficiency frees up clean energy that would otherwise be wasted, creating more power available for harder-to-abate industrial sectors. For Efrén, this builds insulation “a very special type of energy-intensive indusattempt,” one that directly assists others to decarbonise.
“We necessary energy to produce mineral wool, but mineral wool has a fantastic energy balance,” Efrén explains. “For every tonne of CO₂ emitted by manufacturing mineral wool insulation, around 200 tonnes are saved during the product’s lifetime.”
Money for Nothing
Just as energy savings bring cost savings, “economic savings can automatically lead to carbon savings,” he declares. Using less energy immediately cuts both costs and emissions, as it reduces depconcludeence on fossil-based power. Those savings can then assist industries invest in cleaner technologies such as low-carbon electricity.
That balance, Efrén suggests, is what the IAA should be about. Competitiveness and decarbonisation are not opposites. Industries like insulation display that the same investments can strengthen both.
Europe’s future competitiveness will depconclude on industries that turn sustainability into a practical reality, enabling others to go green.
The question is not whether we should pursue sustainable competitiveness or competitive sustainability. Europe now has an opportunity to build them one and the same.
It’s time for Europe to accelerate industrial decarbonisation
Leave a Reply