The ‘2024 annual progress report: Transition Pathway for the Chemical Industry’ reviews the second year of the EU's strategy for guiding the chemical sector towards sustainability and digitalisation. Introduced in January 2023, the pathway outlines around 190 actions to enhance resilience and align with the updated 2021 industrial strategy.

Key highlights:

• Implementation progress: The building blocks on investment and funding, research and innovation and regulation and public governance account for the highest share of finalised short-term actions at almost 76 % of the total on average. Access to energy and feedstock, sustainable competitiveness and infrastructure have on average 41 % of the short-term actions finalised, whereas all short-term actions under skills are in progress.
• Stakeholder Support Platform: In 2024, the Commission announced the establishment of a new Stakeholder Support Platform to facilitate the twin transition of the EU’s chemical industry. The platform provides an overview of recent policies, news, events, funding opportunities and relevant sources to the chemicals ecosystem across the EU and globally.
• Transition initiatives: In 2024, the Commission launched a new call for submission of transition initiatives about stakeholders’ concrete actions towards the twin transition and increased resilience of the chemical industry. Based on the input received, a new batch of initiatives was published in the recently established Stakeholder Support Platform.
• Working Group on Chemical Industry: The working group continued discussions and cooperation with stakeholders on the co-implementation of the transition pathway.
• Task forces (TFs): The task forces set up under the Working Group on Chemical Industry continued their work on specific topics of the pathway, in particular: the TF on international competitiveness took over the activities from the TF on circularity, focusing on alternative carbon feedstocks and developing a list of possible market pull measures to support their uptake. In the meantime, the TF on energy and feedstock finalised its analysis on long-term energy and feedstock needs for the chemical industry, with the publication of the Carbon Managers report by the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC), showcasing different future scenarios towards climate neutrality. 

The report reaffirms the EU's commitment to transforming the chemical industry into a sustainable, digital, and resilient sector, supporting the European Green Deal and the industrial strategy.