The Basque country hosts the first meeting of the world clusters of the World Economic Forum’s “net-zero emissions” initiative

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has chosen the Basque Country to hold today and tomorrow (7 and 8 April) the first meeting of the world clusters involved in the “transitioning industrial clusters towards net zero” initiative; the Hynet Cluster (United Kingdom), Zero Carbon Humber (United Kingdoms), Kwinana Industrial Area (Australia), Chemelot (the Netherlands) and the Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster are so far taking part.

The sessions are taking place at the BEC and at the Accenture specialist centre at the Bizkaia Science and Technology Park, and are aimed at connecting the different international clusters in the initiative, agreeing on its governance model and learning about the main characteristics and assets of the Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster. Furthermore, the event has allocated time to connect with potential new clusters that envisage signing up to the initiative in the near future.

The “transitioning industrial clusters towards net zero” initiative is promoted by the World Economic Forum, along with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and Accenture, with the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

The sessions were opened by Joanna Kolomanska, from WEF, and the Basque Government’s Deputy Minister for Industry, Mikel Amundarain, took part.

The Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster is represented by its current business and industrial representatives (Petronor & Iberdrola, Energy Cluster, Aclima, Siderex, AFV and the Paper Cluster), along with representatives of the Basque Government and SPRI.

The visit agenda is divided into 4 blocks:

• Visit to Wind Europe and to the Wind Energy Basque Country stand, organised by the Energy Cluster and EVE (Basque Energy Board), which pools the industrial and technological capabilities and the latest developments of over 50 Basque public entities and organisation in a joint space of over 800 m2.
• Presentation of the main initiatives of representatives of the Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster, such as:
  • The Basque Hydrogen Corridor, led by Petronor, which has over 73 participating companies and entities, and 40 projects that expect to leverage an investment of €1,500 million up to 2026.
  • The Iberdrola Global Smart Grids Innovation Hub, the global innovation and knowledge centre and a world benchmark in smart grids, which has identified, along with over 30 technological partners, 120 projects worth €110 million to meet the challenges of the energy transition.
• Sessions behind closed doors between the industrial clusters participating in the initiative, aimed at sharing the progress and challenges faced by each cluster, specifically the project’s governance structure and model, and at identifying opportunities that allow the project to grow progressively and accommodate new clusters.
• Sessions with the potential new clusters that envisage signing up to the initiative in the near future: Sines Cluster (Portugal), Puglia Cluster (Italy), Port of Antwerp Cluster (Belgium) and five US clusters. In particular, the intention is to hold a specific session with key figures from the US Department of Energy in order to present the Basque case and the steps to be taken to form part of the initiative.

Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster

Presented by the Basque Government’s Minister for Economic Development, Sustainability and the Environment, Arantxa Tapia, in the Basque Country on 28 October and at the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference-COP26 held in Glasgow on 3 and 4 November, the “Basque Net Zero Industrial Super Cluster” initiative is one of the four regional projects invited to form part of the initiative promoted by the World Economic Forum to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

Specifically, the World Economic Forum’s “transitioning industrial clusters towards net zero” initiative seeks to highlight the achievement of industrial clusters in the transition towards net zero emissions and, thus, motivate and offer experiences and best practices to other cluster so that they make commitments in that transition.

With nearly 80% of the world economy now committed to achieve net zero emissions, there is a pressing need to act to meet this ambitious goal; it is essential that the companies of the different industrial sectors, particularly those with a high energy consumption – and, therefore, CO2 emissions associated to that consumption – play a key role in compliance of those commitments.