The European Commission has approved the new Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy (CEEAG), which will be formally adopted in January 2022. Aimed at helping Member States meet their ambitious EU energy and climate targets, the new guidelines broaden the categories of investments and technologies that Member States can support, including the reduction or avoidance of greenhouse gas emissions and other pollutants, aid for biodiversity, for resource efficiency or for circular economy.
They allow for aid amounts of up to 100% of the funding gap, and introduce new aid instruments such as Carbon Contracts for Difference.
The CEEAG also feature dedicated sections for aid incentivising investments in flagship areas such as energy performance of buildings, and clean mobility, covering all transport modes. They introduce changes to the current rules on reductions on certain electricity levies for energy intensive users, covering the reductions in all levies financing decarbonisation and social policies while streamlining the number of eligible sectors.
Finally, they will ensure coherence with the relevant EU legislation and policies in the environmental and energy fields, by, among others, ending subsidies for the most polluting fossil fuels: new investments in gas are unlikely to be approved unless they prove compatible with the EU 2030 and 2050 targets, while new aid will be allowed for the closure of coal, peat and oil shale plants to facilitate decarbonisation in the power sector.
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