Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck has called for cooperation in green investments between Europe and the US ahead of meetings in Washington next week with U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and other officials, as reported by Reuters on February 5. At the planned meeting, Habeck and his French counterpart, Bruno Le Maire, are expected to discourage senior US. officials from trying to lure green investments away from Europe, due to European worries about the new US legislation on green subsidy, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Despite this, Habeck recognizes the US’s efforts in investing in green markets and promoting cost reductions in the development of green technologies, while stressing the importance of fair competition.

US President Joe Biden signed the USD430bn IRA in August 2022, including an investment of USD369bn in energy security and climate change initiatives over the next decade. The legislation will subsidize products linked to carbon reduction, ranging from electric cars to solar panels. In response, the European Commission proposed easing restrictions on state aid temporarily to strengthen the market attractiveness of Europe. Moreover, on February 1, the Commission released the Green Deal Industrial Plan to speed up decarbonization and prevent a “subsidy race” among member states. According to Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager, the member states acknowledged that a portion of the IRA “threatens the competitiveness of certain key sectors for the European industry’s green transition, but  the EU-US relationship must be natured, and any EU reaction should “be based on facts and target only the specific issues caused by the IRA.”

https://www.reuters.com/business/sustainable-business/german-minister-habeck-calls-green-tech-cooperation-with-united-states-2023-02-05/

https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/us-inflation-reduction-act-risk-europes-industrial-base-eus-vestager-says-2022-10-26/

https://www.reuters.com/markets/why-us-inflation-reduction-act-has-rattled-europe-2023-02-01/

https://www.argusmedia.com/en/news/2415333-eu-proposes-state-aid-changes-in-face-of-us-ira