Today, the European Commission has selected 77 European net-zero technology projects to receive funding support worth €3.4 billion under the call of the Innovation Fund, launched in December 2025. By reinvesting the revenues from the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) in innovative decarbonisation technologies, these projects will strengthen Europe's industrial leadership and competitiveness in these sectors and contribute to the clean transition, energy independence and security.

Spread across 23 countries in the European Economic Area, the selected projects represent a wide range of sectors, applications and technologies at different scales. It includes energy-intensive industries, renewable energy and innovative energy storage, cleantech manufacturing, net-zero mobility, critical raw materials processing and recycling, advanced alternative fuels, and industrial carbon management. For the first time, the list includes a small modular nuclear reactor project and a direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) project. It all also includes 6 Critical Raw Materials (CRM) projects, which will feed into the policy priorities of the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) and the RESourceEU Action Plan, boosting the supply chains for clean tech applications, including rare earth permanent magnets and batteries.

The Commission estimates that the 77 projects have the potential to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, avoiding the equivalent of around 290 million tonnes over their first decade of operations. This corresponds to a rough reduction of one tonne of CO₂ per second for a decade. This reduction, and the knock-on effects of the innovations across other sectors, will contribute significantly towards the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal.