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Authored by Malte Lohan, CEO, AmCham EU

The European Commission’s proposed Clean Industrial Deal has shone a spotlight on the EU’s strategy to accelerate decarbonisation and at the same time ensure industrial competitiveness. To succeed in these goals, the proposal calls for de-risking private investment, securing energy affordability and ensuring regulatory simplification.

Hand in hand with the EU’s efforts, American companies committed to Europe are getting creative in their own efforts to help decarbonise the continent. These initiatives make use of cutting-edge technology and old-fashioned biodiversity to reduce their carbon footprint and integrate into their operations climate-friendly energy solutions and integrate energy-efficient solutions into their operations.

Cisco – Spain

In 2024, Cisco signed a 15-year agreement to purchase approximately 60,000 MWh per year of solar energy from a Spanish renewable energy provider. As a result, a new solar plant was built in the region of Aragón, creating more than a hundred jobs during construction, and a permanent team was hired for operation and maintenance. The agreement is expected to provide enough solar energy to match 100% of the annual electricity needs for Cisco’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for the next 15 years.

Honeywell – Denmark

The Ringsted District Heating Utility in Denmark, which is responsible for heating more than 7,000 homes, schools, stores, sporting facilities and other local buildings, pledged to achieve 95% carbon-free heat by 2020. To achieve this lofty ambition, Honeywell and several project partners designed a 21st-century, energy-efficient heat plant that, among other sustainability features, improved efficiency and reduced costs by recovering and recycling waste heat. As a result of these innovations, the heat plant produced 97% carbon-free heat after just one year.

Mars, Inc. – the EU

Dairy is the second largest contributor of the Mars Snacking division’s carbon footprint, and raw ingredients account for over 70% of the organisation’s total greenhouse gas emissions. As part of a global $47 million investment in dairy sustainability, the company is working with industry leaders to implement climate-smart, on-farm interventions. In the EU, these innovative farming practices include using manure additives to reduce storage emissions, implementing biodigesters to convert manure into energy, using new technologies to create a pathway to zero emissions and launching additive projects to reduce enteric methane emissions.

Wabtec – Italy

Wabtec’s Piossasco plant near Turin, Italy employs a combination of solar energy projects, biodiversity preservation and improved industrial processes to reduce its carbon footprint. The site expanded its solar panel system in 2024 to cover 64% of the plant’s energy needs, an increase from 29% in 2023. In addition, it has planted trees, introduced beehives and installed a 20,000-litre tank to collect rainwater and irrigate the green areas, among other innovations.

Read more about AmCham EU members’ decarbonisation initiatives on Invested in Europe, our platform for stories of American companies’ positive impacts on communities across the continent.

In Brussels these days it’s impossible to escape conversations about competitiveness – and more specifically, whether the EU’s Single Market has enough of it, how much of it the US and China have, how the EU can get more of it, what Mr Draghi will say about it and how to balance it with the EU’s long-term important policy priorities such as the Green Deal. And with competitiveness now firmly at the centre of the EU Strategic Agenda, policymakers are now thinking about how to strengthen Europe’s long-term economic outlook.

These conversations are important because the attractiveness of Europe is under threat. A heavy regulatory agenda, protectionist trends and sluggish growth have created a difficult environment for business in a context of global uncertainty. But, as AmCham EU’s Agenda for Action highlights, the EU can take decisive action to reset the agenda and strengthen its competitiveness in the global economy. Decisive action includes addressing how EU policy measures and proposed regulations are made, as well as the substance of those proposals.

Even though it integrates competitiveness checks, the European Commission’s current impact assessment process could become more transparent and offer more balanced evaluations of the effect of proposed legislation on the investment climate and European competitiveness overall. The opportunity is ripe to make the European policymaking process more open, take industry data better into account, and better recognise how policymaking directly impacts European competitiveness.

One way to address these shortcomings is by introducing a focused policy evaluation tool to stimulate broader debate among co-legislators and help the Commission to better consider industry impacts. The Competitiveness Scorecard would feature a simple yet effective ten-point checklist to evaluate how new or revised regulations would:

Enhance the Single Market and fair competition.

Attract trade and investment while strengthening international partnerships.

Develop skills within the EU workforce.

Promote innovation and its industrial application.

Support essential supply chains and infrastructure investments.

Contribute to gross domestic product and productivity growth.

Accelerate digital transformation across the EU.

Reduce costs and regulatory burdens for businesses and consumers.

Improve consumer purchasing power.

Strengthen the EU’s competitive resilience in a rapidly changing global context.

The Competitiveness Scorecard is not just a tool – it is a conversation starter about actionable ways to enhance Europe’s competitiveness through better policy and legislative procedures. It would encourage greater public, stakeholder and cross-institutional dialogue and transparency during key legislative stages, using evidence from business analyses and other relevant stakeholders.

The Scorecard process could be convened by the EU Presidency via the Working Party on Competitiveness and Growth and could be executed by existing bodies who have relevant expertise to do the necessary analysis. The Scorecard could also be added to the Better Regulation Toolbox or a revision to the Interinstitutional Agreement on Better Law-Making.

Like other major policy and political priorities such as sustainable development, the Commission would benefit from specific evaluation and transparent discussion about competitiveness for each legislative and policy initiative that appropriately balances relevant data from industry, academia and civil society. Just as the EU has committed to a whole-of-government approach towards the United Nation’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, it needs to take a whole-of-government approach to competitiveness, using innovative policy tools and metrics to deliver a more competitive EU.

The Competitiveness Scorecard represents a forward-thinking approach to improving the Commission’s impact assessment process. By enhancing transparency, incorporating broad stakeholder insights and directly addressing key competitiveness factors, the Scorecard is a concrete way to significantly improve the quality and effectiveness of EU regulatory proposals, strengthen the Single Market and enhance the attractiveness of Europe for investment.