HorizonEurope: innovating a dirtier climate?
HorizonEurope, the successor of Europe2020 is the EU’s Research and Innovation programme. While it promises more breakthroughs and discoveries by taking “great ideas” from the lab to the market, we know fossil fuels need to stay underground.
The current EU research fund Horizon 2020 has already been a source of toxic funding. In 2015 it granted 12 million euros to four shale gas research projects with the aim of encouraging the exploitation of this high-carbon fossil fuel.
The new proposals for the research fund follow the same trend. It includes 15 billion euros for a 'Climate, Energy and Mobility' cluster. Though this cluster includes the objective of ‘making the energy and transport sectors more climate and environment-friendly’, support to fossil fuel projects will still be allowed, in particular carbon capture and storage technologies.
All energy and transport funding should go to exciting ideas for energy-efficient technologies and smart grids fed with renewable energy and storage batteries which are already out of the lab.
