Brussels, 12 December 2015

The COP21 Paris Agreement sends a clear signal that the transition to a fully decarbonised global economy is not just inevitable, but now accelerating across the globe. The EU’s international trading partners are opening new doors for collaboration via projects like the ‘Mission Innovation’ programme for global clean energy innovation. But they are also challenging Europe in the race to develop new industries (for both goods and services) to secure competitive advantage as well as environmental, economic and employment benefits. This means that if the EU wants to ensure it competes successfully in the new global economy, it urgently needs high-level political commitment to an ambitious European industrial innovation strategy.

This entails not only a compelling and integrated vision and enabling framework for public-private innovation projects and the scaling of successes, but also genuine alignment across all relevant areas and levels of European public policy so as to deliver truly systemic innovation and socially just outcomes.