A key premise of European climate policy is the prevention and reduction of CO2 and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This objective also affects many sustainable investment and innovation projects. Many major grant schemes, such as the Innovation Fund, CEF, DEI+ or VEKI, require complex calculations that provide good insight into a project’s GHG emission reduction. EGEN can help with this.
An EGEN expertise: the CO2 calculation
Greenhouse gas emission avoidance and reduction is currently top priority in European and many national policy ambitions. To tackle climate change, the European Parliament has passed the European Climate Act, which raises the EU’s 2030 emissions reduction target to at least 55% instead of 40% and makes climate neutrality legally binding by 2050 (more details here).
EGEN fully supports this decision in light of the current climate crisis and acknowledges that the increased CO2 reduction targets require acceleration of sustainable innovations for companies and industries. At EGEN, we are committed to tackling climate change and achieving CO2 reduction together with you. Our CO2 calculation service can be an important link in the process of implementing accelerated innovation and provides insights into potential CO2 reduction or avoidance.
The EGEN approach
The importance and complexity of greenhouse gas calculations are becoming increasingly apparent. An example of this was seen in the dedicated ENTRANCE webinar last June. The webinar, with a focus on sustainable transport innovation, aimed to help innovation investors, buyers and owners attain a comprehensive understanding of how to assess the impact of innovative solutions on emission reduction, thus using the impact assessment for facilitating innovation uptakes.
At EGEN we have a dedicated Impact Assessment Centre, where we perform various types of impact measurements. Greenhouse gas emission calculations are one of the impact services that we specialise in. We can use our CO2 calculation to provide insight into the greenhouse gas emissions associated with your project, investment decision, process or company.
Our GHG experts calculate CO2 on the basis of a standardised EGEN approach. We walk you through this during the process so that you get the most accurate insight possible into the carbon footprint. Carbon footprints are measured at three levels: direct CO2 emissions from company activities (Scope 1); indirect CO2 emissions from upstream activities such as electricity, heat and feedstock (Scope 2); and indirect emissions from downstream activities, such as company investments and actual usage of the products (Scope 3).
In addition, we can examine the effectiveness of your process by comparing your project’s performance with a reference case based on the current state of the technology. We can use EU ETS benchmarks for comparison, or our access to a large, recognised database (EcoInvent 3.8) that contains data for thousands of processes at a national, European or global level.
As a bonus, we can apply our experience in the grant landscape to identify a suitable financing opportunity for you. Through our expertise in public funding, we ensure that our CO2 calculations are compliant with European grant programmes such as the Innovation Fund and CEF, as well as Dutch national grant programmes such as DEI+ and VEKI.
Innovation Fund: the grant known for its complex GHG calculation
The European grant with perhaps the greatest focus on CO2 reduction and avoidance is the Innovation Fund. In 2020, the EU launched its Innovation Fund for European energy and climate projects, supported by a budget of 38 billion euros for funding high-potential, high-impact innovations. In our previous newsletter, we described how the fund is preparing two new calls for proposals:
- large-scale innovation projects (above 7.5 million euros) – expected application period: from November 2022 to March 2023
- small-scale innovation projects (below 7.5 million euros) – expected application period: from April 2023 to September 2023.
A mandatory part of the Innovation Fund application is the greenhouse gas emission avoidance calculation, which must be performed using a very specific and strict method with fixed guidelines and templates. The execution and quality of this calculation is very decisive for the overall evaluation and the potential success of the application. Beyond our expertise in writing Innovation Fund applications, EGEN’s GHG experts already have a lot of experience with the required greenhouse gas emissions avoidance calculations for Innovation Fund applications. Did you know that PNO Group, of which EGEN is part, accounted for seven of the 17 applications approved in the cleantech sector in 2022? That is more than 40% of the approved applications!
Reduce your GHG emissions with EGEN
Do you want insights into the greenhouse gas emission reduction of a sustainable investment or innovation project compared to the status quo? Would you like to demonstrate the positive impact of your process for increasing the sustainability of the sector? Or do you want support with the CO2 calculation for a specific grant? EGEN can calculate the greenhouse gas reduction or avoidance potential of your project, company or process so we can help you to tackle climate change and accelerate green innovation! Interested? Simply complete the contact form below, and we will get in touch with you as soon as possible.
