Speaking about, as you said, the future of industry: just look north, for example to Sweden. There, 160 kilometres below the Arctic Circle, one can visit a pioneer of greening our economy. In the town of Lulea, a steel plant just started using hydrogen gas to reduce iron ore. And some days ago another producer in the same region announced that he will build a large-scale green hydrogen plant as part of a new steel production facility.

These are not isolated cases. We all know that today, the steel industry is responsible for up to 9% of global emissions. Thus, companies in Northern Sweden have to and want to bring down their carbon footprint to zero – with water vapour the only by-product. Their way to achieve this is clean hydrogen. Hydrogen, derived from renewable energy, such as hydroelectric power. A resource that is as abundant in Scandinavia as high-quality iron ore.

These Swedish entrepreneurs match exactly the spirit of our European Green Deal. We want to reconcile the way we produce and do business with the health of our planet. It is time to do this. Because what is good for the planet is good for business and good for us all. The energy transition is at the heart of our European Green Deal. And this is why I am delighted to be able to talk to you today at the Berlin Energy Transition Dialogue. Sadly, because of the pandemic, only virtually.

Let me be clear: The European Green Deal is as important today as it has been before COVID-19. If anything, it has become even more important. There is increasing evidence that the loss of biodiversity is one of the root causes for this global pandemic. And while much of the world's activity froze during lockdowns and shutdowns, our planet continued to get hotter. We see it all around us: From the collapse of the glacier in Northern India, which just recently killed dozens of people, to the many, many crops destroyed in many European countries by the severe droughts of the last years – climate change is the massive crisis beyond COVID-19. Therefore, after the pandemic, there can be no backsliding. No return to economic activity based on fossil fuels, at the expense of climate and nature.

Source by: European Commission