Industrial Transformation: Impacts of Industrial Emissions Directive 2024/1785 on Climate Neutrality and CSR3D
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Italy
I am a partner and Head of our Italian Regulatory and Administrative (Public Law) department. Working across several industry sectors being changed by the digital world, I provide expert advice on complex regulatory, antitrust and public procurement issues.
Senior Associate
Italy
I provide expert advice on environmental issues, both from an administrative and criminal point of view. I'm particularly skilled in providing legal support to obtain environmental permits.
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On the 15 July, Directive (EU) 2024/1785 was published, providing significant changes to Directive 2010/75/EU on industrial emissions.
The new Directive, effective from 4 August 2024, introduces various changes for activities under the Integrated Environmental Authorization (IPPC), and extends the AIA/IPPC system to new ones. It assigns Member States a deadline of 1 July 2026 to ensure the necessary laws are implemented.
One notable change of the amendment is the inclusion of large battery production plants (not mere assemblies) under the AIA/IPPC regime. It also introduces mandatory cases of ‘industrial transformation’ and ‘deep industrial transformation’ into the AIA/IPPC system.
Industrial transformation means adapting the installation subject to AIA/IPPC between 2030-2050 and ‘contributing to the emergence of a sustainable, clean, circular, resource-efficient and climate-neutral economy by 2050’.
Article 27 quinques, titled ‘Transformation towards a clean, circular and climate-neutral industry’ stipulates that by 30 June 2030, Member States must require the operator of AIA/IPPC plants to include an industrial transformation plan in their environmental management system, with the goal of climate neutrality by 2050. The plan should cover activities in AIA sectors considered to have the greatest energy impact e.g. energy activities, production and processing of metals, mineral products industry, chemical industry.
It also highlights that climate neutrality objectives for 2050 can be achieved with ‘deep industrial transformation’. Defined in Article 3, point 9 bis as ‘the implementation by industrial operators of emerging techniques or best available techniques involving a major change in the design or technology of an installation in whole or in part, or the replacement of an existing installation by a new installation, which leads to a very substantial reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in line with the climate neutrality objective and optimises co-benefits for the environment (...) taking into account cross effects’.
Article 27 sexies, further specifies that deep industrial transformation may consist of changing installations or replacing them entirely.
Including these provisions in the AIA/IPPC regulation is particularly disruptive because it introduces a further limit of climate neutrality by 2050. Authorities first issuing the AIA/IPPC or reviewing the permit already issued will also apply this limit on the individual installations/activities, evaluating the transformation plans that the operators present and implement in order to obtain the issue of the AIA/IPPC, the positive review of the AIA/IPPC, or to maintain their AIA/IPPC once issued or renewed.
The new cases will fully enter into the AIA/IPPC authorizing measures from 30 June 2030 and will become part of the environmental obligations assessed in the Environmental Due Diligence of the supply chain provided for by the CSR3D Directive.
Get in touch with our lawyers Simone Cadeddu and Paola Bologna for more information.
