To be a match for China and the US, the EU Commission estimates that the EU will need investments of approx. EUR 170bn in green technologies towards 2030, according to Frankfurter Allgemeiner Zeitung.

This huge investment sum must supplement already planned investments as part of the Green Deal and the EUR 300bn earmarked for REPowerEU in order to prevent future investments being directed elsewhere than Europe.

The plan will be presented by President of the EU Commission Ursula von Der Leyen Wednesday.

Targeted net-zero technologies of the plan include solar and wind energy, battery storage, heat pumps and hydrogen.

How the EU plans to source the funds has not yet been disclosed. Several EU Commission sources note that additional borrowing seems inevitable.

Several EU nations recently submitted a letter to the EU Commissioner of Trade Valdis Dombrovskis to underline their opposition to any further borrowing in the EU to finance this plan.

The seven signatories argue the merits of tapping into unused loans and grants that are left over from the EU’s borrowing of EUR 800bn to get through the Covid-19 crisis.