Investment needs and gaps for the sustainability transition in Europe: Rethinking the European Green Deal as an EU industrial strategy

The EGD pathways for a sustainability transition in Europe is facing a crossroads. The report addresses the barriers still affecting the EGD implementation, the issues emerging in financing the investment needs for the transition, and the new macro policy framework that can hinder or favour a ‘new’ EGD pathways in the next few years. The report presents a systematic overview of estimated investment needs to achieve the major EU climate, energy and environmental targets, and the corresponding gaps with respect to the present investment trends. The industrial and manufacturing capacities of the EU to pursue the development of domestic value chains in Net Zero industries and clean tech are examined using original datasets. The report also explores the macro policy space for transition investments, and suggests the opportunity to rethink investment strategies, by both the public sector and the private sector, as a new EU industrial policy in the perspective of the Clean Industrial Deal announced by the European Commission.