The Mutual Learning Exercise (MLE) is an established instrument of the EU to promote the exchange of best practices among the participating countries and to allow countries to learn from each other and from the experts.
The MLE on Industrial Decarbonisation is expected to contribute to achieving the Green Deal. 12 European countries have committed in early 2023 to participate in this MLE. This will help countries to effectively address the challenges of reducing carbon emissions in the industrial sector and move towards a more sustainable future. The ultimate goal of this MLE is faster deployment of new technology, business solutions, and models to facilitate the transition to a climate-neutral continent, while also strengthening Europe’s industrial sector.
After four intensive thematic sessions, this dissemination event has the aim to spread and discuss the results to a broader professional audience.
The Mutual Learning Exercice on Industrial Decarbonisation is organized by the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation). The aim is to contribute to achieving the Green Deal by serving as a platform for participating countries to discuss their specific needs and interests, exchange experiences and knowledge about success factors and lessons learned, and provide guidance to policy makers on how to develop or update their industrial technology roadmaps and sector-specific strategies for industrial decarbonization.
The ultimate goal of this MLE is faster deployment of new technology, business solutions, and models to facilitate the transition to a climate-neutral continent, while also strengthening Europe’s industrial sector.
The dissemination activities are the final step in this exercice. They are held under the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, as both regional authorities of Flanders and Wallonia are participating in the MLE as representatives of Belgium.
Part I concerns an event on invitation in Brussels. Invitations are sent to Government experts from MLE countries, outside MLE country participants, MLE experts, and senior managers of industry, business and research associations. It aims at presenting the results of the project to a wider group of participants, with the focus on discussing impact and lessons learned from the MLE and follow up.
The event will feature a keynote speech by a high-level speaker who will set the scene for the subsequent discussions. After a presentation, made by the Chair, of the MLE results and the policy recommendations identified and validated during the project, the open event will have a panel discussion to debate the next steps on how the policy recommendations can be applied. This panel discussion, moderated by the European Commission, will gather speakers from the MLE participating countries and industry representatives.
In between the two sessions, a short presentation from the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation on a new action plan on decarbonisation of the EU energy-intensive industries will take place.
Part II concerns several closed sessions (restricted to the MLE participants, project team and targeted invitees), combined with site visits in both Wallonia and Flanders. It aims at discussing, among practitioners and industry representatives, concrete actions that can be applied by the MLE participants to put into practice the lessons learned during the exercise, with the objective of increasing the impact of the MLE and follow up.
The MLE participants are invited to the Wallonia region, to visit the CRM Group premisses, with a focus on industry pilots. Afterwards, two panel discussions, with invited speakers mainly from the industry, aim at debating the industry decarbonisation strategy of Wallonia (with an emphasis on the role of SMEs), the role of CCU with the presentation of the project Columbus by Carmeuse, and the role of green hydrogen in the decarbonisation of energy-intensive industries, with several interventions from the industry and public authorities. The day will end with a networking cocktail with invited members of the Belgium Hydrogen Council.
On the second day, the MLE participants will move to Genk (Flanders), to have further discussions on the role of inter-regional collaboration, industry-symbiosis, regulatory sandboxes and the role of green electricity, infrastructure and logistics for industrial decarbonisation. A first set of presentations from representatives of EnergyVille and from the Port of Antwerp-Bruges and North Sea Port will provide to the MLE participants concrete examples and best practices of industry-symbiosis, electrification, logistics and regulatory sandboxes.
After that, a panel discussion bringing together public actors from Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany aspires to bring insights about interregional collaboration, in line with the policy recommendations. Finally, a site visit to the EnergyVille premisses will again showcase good examples of industrial decarbonisation in Belgium.
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