Our European chemical industry has been paying close attention to and supporting the European Green agreement – Europe’s growth strategy, which aims to make Europe’s climate neutral by 2050, while introducing new legislative measures in the areas of circular economy, biodiversity, innovation, etc. The EU chemical industry is ambitious and hopes to achieve climate neutrality by 2050, and has begun to invest in renewable energy production and other emission reduction technologies

We hope to see Europe become a global innovation center and investment hotspot. While solving these huge ambitions, under appropriate conditions, we believe that the chemical industry can flourish, because it helps Europe establish its global advantage in the rapidly changing global pattern, take the lead in sustainable development through the innovation cycle mode, and maintain the forefront of new technologies.

R & D and innovation of European chemical industry

We believe that three developments will have a significant impact on the chemical industry in the coming decades. These are the digitalization, recycling and electrification of chemical processes in our industry.

Speaking of digitalization; Data mining and analysis, blockchain technology and AI intelligence promise better, faster decision-making, greater efficiency and greater transparency in our industry – predictive toxicology can help us understand the safety of chemicals in the early stage of research and achieve safe product design.

In terms of recycling, our chemical industry is in a unique position to recycle it and use it as a building block for the manufacture of new chemicals and materials. This is not only recycling, but also biomass, waste and carbon dioxide as raw materials.

Third, the electrification of chemical processes can provide power for our future operations. In order to reduce our industrial carbon footprint, we have been innovating to electrify these processes, so as to achieve a shift to green energy. In many cases, this means a radical transformation of existing technologies and processes.

Improve international trade in Europe

Our chemical industry is one of the most globalized industrial sectors in the EU and highly dependent on open and fair trade. While promoting growth and development, chemical trade must be combined with regulatory cooperation to ensure a high degree of protection of human health and the environment. We support more effective, transparent and economical methods of chemicals management among trading partner countries.
We believe that the rules based World Trade Organization (WTO) system has created a predictable and stable trading environment for our industry, enabling it to grow and invest globally. However, the multilateral system has deficiencies in the liberalization of commodity trade and the formulation of new rules. Therefore, the free trade agreement is still the cornerstone of EU trade policy. We believe that the free trade agreement must focus on eliminating tariff and non-tariff barriers, regulatory cooperation and promoting cross-border trade as much as possible; Strive to digitize the simplest customs procedures, rules of origin, and all required documents, and make the logistics system as flexible as possible.

We have also been actively promoting the process of the United Nations global coordinating system (GHS) and the strategic approach to international chemicals management (SAICM), supporting the formulation of national regulations and policy plans to ensure that the production and use of chemicals minimize adverse effects on the environment and human health.

Demand and purchase of chemical raw materials

Raw materials are crucial to the European economy. The EU relies on importing many raw materials, which are crucial to a strong European industrial base. Europe and its chemical industry face many challenges in the whole raw material value chain, such as exploration and management, extraction and harvesting, processing and refining, manufacturing, use and recycling, and substitution.

According to the 2050 research and innovation roadmap, the use of metals, minerals, stones, aggregates and biomaterials (derived from biological organisms, such as wood) will be key to most manufacturing operations. However, with the emergence of new consumption patterns and the development of technologies to replace non renewable, critical or energy intensive materials or climate friendly processes, the types of raw materials are also changing.

We have high hopes for innovation in the value chain of raw materials – although this field has great potential, it has not yet been developed. A more coordinated approach to raw material management will help reduce dependence on external supplies and lead to the effective use and reuse of resources. Raw materials constitute the pillar of the circular economy. Based on the increasing recycling of materials, scrap products are regarded as resources for another cycle.

Challenges faced by the European chemical industry

In addition to the opportunities surrounding the European Green agreement, the challenges we face now are also enormous. Our chemical industry may be the only industry facing quadruple challenges. In addition to the green and digital transformation that all other sectors will experience, we also face the challenges of recycling and the chemicals sustainability strategy (CSS) from now to 2050. As unprecedented regulatory reform approaches, we will need to sequence all steps to ensure the necessary investments are made early in the process.

The operation of Cefic and the implementation of EU chemicals legislation

With the European Green agreement, especially the chemicals sustainability strategy, our chemical industry is facing the largest regulatory reform since reach. We believe that the strategy should be based on three main pillars; Enforce, implement and innovate, and turn the EU vision into reality.

The implementation of EU chemical safety and environmental legislation is at the core of the implementation of the EU agenda. No matter how ambitious this legislation is on paper, if it is not implemented properly, it will never achieve the level of protection for consumers and workers. As a member of the high level round table on the implementation of the chemicals sustainability strategy, Cefic launched a debate on the urgent need to strengthen the implementation of the EU chemicals law, which prompted the European Commission to develop a set of recommendations supported by all members of the round table.

In addition, at the end of 2021, we launched an economic analysis of the impact of CSS, especially on the core content of EU chemicals legislation, the classification, packaging and labelling regulations (CLP) and reach. These data collected from more than 100 European chemical companies will be used as input to the European Commission’s impact assessment. The results show the great challenges ahead of us. In order to realize industrial transformation, we need a strong transformation path of chemical industry. Based on this analysis, we invite European policymakers and EU member governments to work with us to transform CSS into a real growth and innovation strategy.

The impact of the epidemic on the European chemical industry and the way forward

We are encouraged that chemical production is returning to pre pandemic levels, but it is clear that challenges remain as the chemical sector is undergoing a “twin transition” to achieve the goals of the European Green agreement. We believe that if we want to turn Europe into the world’s green growth engine, our industrial ecosystem cannot be managed in the policy shaft. Most importantly, the coherent implementation of the sustainable chemicals strategy will require the establishment of a business case for a strong and sustainable EU chemical industry in the future.