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Researchers urge Europe to ’embrace’ deindustrialisation

(EurActiv, 24 Apr 2024) Faced with global competition from countries with cheap renewable energy, the EU should embrace a partial deindustrialisation rather than subsidise uncompetitive industries, according to a new report from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research published on Wednesday (24 April).

Deindustrialisation and economic competitiveness are key talking points as the EU heads towards elections on 6-9 June. Things can unravel fast: When the energy crisis hit in 2022, European ammonia production, a step in fertiliser manufacturing, dropped by 70% and remained low in 2023 – prompting lobby groups to warn of deindustrialization.

But while EU politicians want to maintain existing domestic supply chains and nurse new green value ones in the face of international competition, researchers warn against creating industries that depend on subsidies to survive.

So should Europe embrace these structural changes, which industry associations call deindustrialisation?

“They should at least consider the partial green relocation of commodities like ammonia,” said Falko Ueckerdt, a senior scientist at the Berlin-based Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), who co-authored a paper on global clean industry perspectives in Nature Energy.

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EurActiv, 24 Apr 2024: Researchers urge Europe to ’embrace’ deindustrialisation

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