With €594 billion in sales in 2021 and providing 1.2 million direct jobs, the chemical sector is a strategic industry in the EU. However, it also accounts for about 16% of the EU’s industry sector emissions and the sector is heavily reliant on fossil fuels as feedstocks and energy carriers. The sector faces difficult challenges in its transformation, which requires tackling innovation, investments, and infrastructure in an integrated way. What challenges does the sector face and what policy actions are needed to accelerate the transformation?
These are questions the Community of Experts discussed with industry expert, Florie Gonsolin, who joined the Coffee Hour to talk about the key challenges and solutions for transforming the sector. Florie illustrated some of the main challenges facing the industry through CEFIC’s sectoral transformation model iC2050, which allows to simulate different pathways towards a climate-neutral and circular industry.
Florie Gonsolin is Director of Industrial Transformation Projects at the chemical industry association, CEFIC. She is also a member of the CoE and a member of the project’s External Advisory Board.