16.5.2023
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 130/145
(52)
A comprehensive approach to innovation is essential for achieving the objectives of Regulation (EU) 2021/1119.
At Union level, the necessary research and innovation efforts are supported, among other things, through Horizon Europe, which includes significant funding and new instruments for the sectors coming under the EU ETS.
Consequently, the Commission should seek synergies with Horizon Europe and, where relevant, with other Union funding programmes.
(53)
The Innovation Fund should support innovative techniques, processes and technologies, including the scaling-up of such techniques, processes and technologies, with a view to their broad roll-out across the Union.
Breakthrough innovation should be prioritised in the selection of projects supported through grants.
(54)
The scope of the Innovation Fund referred to in Article 10a(8) of Directive 2003/87/EC should be extended to support innovation in low- and zero-carbon technologies and processes that concern the consumption of fuels in the buildings, road transport and additional sectors, including collective forms of transport such as public transport and coach services.
In addition, the Innovation Fund should serve to support investments to decarbonise maritime transport, including investments in energy efficiency of ships, ports and short-sea shipping, in electrification of the sector, in sustainable alternative fuels, such as hydrogen and ammonia that are produced from renewables, in zeroemission propulsion technologies such as wind technologies, and in innovations with regard to ice-class ships.
Special attention should be given to innovative projects contributing to decarbonising the maritime sector and reducing all of its climate impacts, including black carbon emissions.
In that respect, the Commission should provide for dedicated topics in Innovation Fund calls for proposals.
Those calls should take biodiversity protection, noise and water pollution issues into account.
As far as maritime transport is concerned, projects with clear added value for the Union should be eligible.
(55)
Pursuant to Article 9 of Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1122 (18), where aircraft operators no longer operate flights covered by the EU ETS, their accounts are set to ‘excluded’ status, and processes may no longer be initiated from those accounts.
To preserve the environmental integrity of the EU ETS, allowances which are not issued to aircraft operators, due to them ceasing operations, should be used to cover any shortfall in surrenders by those operators, and any leftover allowances should be used to accelerate action to tackle climate change by being placed in the Innovation Fund.
(56)
Technical assistance from the Commission focused on Member States from which few or no projects have been submitted so far would contribute to achieving a high number of project applications for funding by the Innovation Fund across all Member States.
That assistance should, among other things, support activities aimed at improving the quality of proposals for projects located in the Member States from which few or no projects have been submitted, for example through sharing information, lessons learned and best practice, and at boosting the activities of national contact points.
Other measures serving the same aim include measures to raise awareness of funding options and increase the capacity of those Member States to identify and support potential project applicants.
Project partnerships across Member States and matchmaking between potential applicants, in particular for largescale projects, should also be promoted.
(57)
In order to improve the role of Member States in the governance of the Innovation Fund and increase transparency, the Commission should report to the Climate Change Committee on the implementation of the Innovation Fund, providing an analysis of the expected impact of awarded projects by sector and by Member State.
The Commission should also provide the report to the European Parliament and to the Council and make it public.
Subject to the agreement of applicants, following the closure of a call for proposals, the Commission should inform Member States of the applications for funding of projects in their respective territories and should provide them with detailed information of those applications in order to facilitate the Member States’ coordination of the support to projects.
In addition, the Commission should inform the Member States about the list of pre-selected projects prior to the award of the support.
Member States should ensure that the national transposition provisions do not hamper innovation and are technologically neutral, while the Commission should provide technical assistance, in particular
(18) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2019/1122 of 12 March 2019 supplementing Directive 2003/87/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards the functioning of the Union Registry (OJ L 177, 2.7.2019, p. 3).