Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2663 actions· ✨ 89 recent

The European Commission approved on 30 March 2026 an Italian state aid scheme (SA.118992) worth up to €6 billion to support domestic production of renewable hydrogen for the transport and industrial sectors, running through 31 December 2029. The scheme operates via two-way contracts for difference (CfD): a strike price is set through competitive bidding, with Italy compensating producers when market prices fall below the strike price and producers reimbursing the state when prices exceed it. SA.118992 is the first sectorally-specialised renewable-hydrogen CISAF approval on the register — distinct from the cleantech- manufacturing cohort (solar/wind/batteries) — and at €6 billion is the largest individual CISAF approval to date, roughly 4× the Bulgaria SA.120414 electricity-price precedent and ~2× Germany SA.121215.

The European Commission approved on 28 January 2026, under EU State aid rules (Article 107(3)(c) TFEU and the 2022 Guidelines on State aid for climate, environmental protection and energy), a EUR 3.1 billion Spanish scheme to support electricity production from new or substantially refurbished high-efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) plants. The scheme runs for ten years (28 January 2026 to 27 January 2036) and pays a two-component reward premium — investment compensation set through competitive auctions plus quarterly-updated operational compensation tied to electricity, fuel and CO2 prices — to CHP operators using natural gas (with a minimum 10% renewable-hydrogen-ready capability), bioliquids, biogas, or solid biomass. The Commission found the scheme's positive effects on Spain's energy-efficiency and decarbonisation targets outweigh potential competition distortions.

On 26 December 2025, Japan's Cabinet approved the FY2026 (Reiwa 8) initial budget, which allocates a new JPY 415 billion (~USD 2.7bn) line to the "Low-Carbon Hydrogen Hub Development Support Project" (低炭素水素 等拠点整備支援事業), administered by METI's Agency for Natural Resources and Energy (ANRE) through JOGMEC under the Hydrogen Society Promotion Act framework enacted in 2024. The programme subsidises Front-End Engineering Design (FEED) and construction costs for shared transport and storage infrastructure -- tanks, pipelines and receiving-terminal equipment -- built jointly by multiple businesses to move low-carbon hydrogen and its derivatives (ammonia, e-methane, synthetic fuels) from import/production points to industrial users. It sits alongside, but is administratively distinct from, JOGMEC's separately-run "price-gap" (kakakusa) 15-year CfD offtake support for hydrogen suppliers. The budget takes effect with Japan's fiscal year on 1 April 2026, subject to ordinary Diet passage in early 2026.

The European Commission approved an Italian State aid scheme worth EUR 1.5 billion (USD ~1.74 billion) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), authorising direct grants, preferential loans, or a combination of both for strategic investments that add new cleantech manufacturing capacity. Eligible technologies span solar photovoltaic (including polysilicon, ingots, wafers, cells, solar glass, modules, inverters, tracking systems and mounting structures), onshore and offshore wind, heat pumps, geothermal, energy storage and batteries, hydrogen, and biomethane/biogas component manufacturing. The scheme is open to companies throughout Italy, is co-financed by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), and runs until 31 December 2030.

On 18 September 2025 the Bundestag adopted the Gesetz zur Errichtung eines Sondervermögens "Infrastruktur und Klimaneutralität" (SVIKG), authorising up to EUR 500 bn of additional federal borrowing over a twelve-year horizon outside the constitutional debt brake, on the basis of the new Article 143h Grundgesetz inserted by the March 2025 constitutional amendment. The envelope splits into up to EUR 100 bn for Länder and municipal infrastructure (channelled via the companion Länder- und Kommunal-Infrastrukturfinanzierungsgesetz, LuKIFG, passed 9 October 2025), EUR 100 bn transferred to the Klima- und Trans- formationsfonds (KTF) in annual instalments through 2034, and up to EUR 300 bn for additional federal investments in transport, energy/ heat, hospital, education, digitalisation, civil protection and R&D infrastructure. Investments are eligible retroactively from 1 January 2025 and may be approved through 31 December 2036; loan repayment begins no later than 1 January 2044. SVIKG is the largest single industrial-finance instrument launched by an EU member state in the post-2022 industrial-policy cycle.

The European Commission approved a EUR 227.9 million (USD ~267.1 million) Innovation Fund grant for TotalEnergies Raffinerie Antwerpen N.V.'s "ARCaDe" (Antwerp Refinery Carbon capture and DeNOx) project, with the grant agreement signed on 22 July 2025. ARCaDe was one of six projects — spanning refinery decarbonisation, hydrogen, ocean energy, plastics recycling, and green heat — invited off the Innovation Fund 2023 general-call (IF23Call) reserve list after eight originally-selected projects withdrew from the March 2025 signing round; the six-project cohort was worth nearly EUR 319 million combined. The project targets carbon capture and NOx-reduction retrofits at TotalEnergies' Antwerp refinery, financed via the EU Emissions Trading System.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-30 for up to approximately USD 626 million (JBIC portion) with Mitsui & Co., Ltd. Co-financed with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, the total co-financing package reaches approximately USD 1,044 million. Proceeds fund Mitsui's investment in Blue Point Number One, LLC, a low-carbon ammonia production facility under construction in Louisiana using CCS technology to cut over 95% of process CO2 emissions. JBIC frames the loan against Japan's Basic Hydrogen Strategy, Seventh Strategic Energy Plan, and GX2040 Vision, which treat hydrogen and its derivatives as key decarbonization energy sources requiring policy-bank-mobilized capital.

On 2025-06-26, South Korea's National R&D Program Evaluation General Committee approved the preliminary feasibility study (예비타당성조사) for the "Korean-style Hydrogen Reduction Steelmaking Demonstration Technology Development Project," clearing state funding of KRW 308.8 billion (part of a KRW 814.6 billion total project cost) over 2026-2030. The program funds a 300,000-tonne-scale demonstration process using the domestic FINEX process to produce hydrogen-reduced iron and molten iron from iron ore and hydrogen, plus a parallel track for small and mid-sized firms to use hydrogen-reduced iron in existing electric-arc furnaces. The technology targets a 95%+ cut in per-tonne carbon emissions versus blast-furnace steelmaking, positioning Korean steel (POSCO, Hyundai Steel) for the EU CBAM and global green-steel premium markets.

On 28 May 2025, Brazilian President Lula launched "Chamada Nordeste" in Salgueiro (Pernambuco) — a BRL 10 billion (~USD 1.8bn) public call for structuring investment projects in the nine Northeast states, run jointly by BNDES, Banco do Brasil, Caixa Econômica Federal, Banco do Nordeste (BNB) and Finep, with technical support from Sudene and the Northeast Consortium. It is the largest project call ever run for the region and sits under the federal Nova Indústria Brasil (NIB) industrial-policy umbrella. Eligible business plans (minimum BRL 10 million) cover storage/renewable energy, bioeconomy with a pharmaceuticals focus, green hydrogen, green data centers and the automotive/agricultural-machinery sector, financed via a combination of credit lines, non-reimbursable economic subsidies and equity participation; the proposal deadline was 15 September 2025. Demand vastly exceeded supply: the call drew 245 proposals totalling roughly BRL 127.8 billion — nearly 13 times the initial BRL 10bn envelope — before BNDES approved 189 projects worth BRL 113 billion in follow-on selection rounds.

The European Commission on 20 May 2025 published the results of the second EU Hydrogen Bank auction (IF24), selecting 15 renewable hydrogen production projects across five European Economic Area countries to share approximately €992 million in Innovation Fund grants. Winning projects span transport, chemicals, methanol, and ammonia end-uses; three projects were selected under a dedicated maritime-fuels lot. Spain, Lithuania, and Austria committed over €700 million in additional national co-funding via the Auctions-as-a-Service mechanism, bringing total public support above €1.69 billion and marking the first large-scale EEA co-funded hydrogen auction.

On 9 August 2023 the German Federal Cabinet adopted the government draft Wirtschaftsplan 2024 of the Climate and Transformation Fund (Klima- und Transformationsfonds, KTF) and the accompanying 2024–2027 financial plan. The plan envisaged ca. EUR 211.8 bn of programme spending across 2024–2027 (EUR 57.6 bn in 2024 alone), funded by national and European emissions-trading revenues plus federal grants, with major lines for semiconductor production (~EUR 4.0 bn in 2024), hydrogen industry build-out (~EUR 3.8 bn), building renovation (~EUR 18.9 bn), EEG renewables support (~EUR 12.6 bn) and electric mobility. The KTF is the principal German federal vehicle for co-financing the EU Chips Act state-aid envelope, IPCEI Hydrogen, decarbonisation contracts (Klimaschutzverträge) and other net-zero-aligned industrial-policy subsidies.

The Inflation Reduction Act (Public Law 117-169), signed by President Biden on 16 August 2022, contains the largest single package of clean-energy and clean-manufacturing subsidies in US history — Congressional Budget Office scored the energy and climate provisions at $369B over 10 years, with subsequent Treasury / academic estimates reaching $800B-$1.2T as uptake exceeded baseline. Core mechanisms include the Section 30D Clean Vehicle credit ($7,500 per qualifying EV), the Section 45X Advanced Manufacturing Production Credit (per-unit credits for domestically-produced battery cells, modules, electrodes, and critical-mineral processing), the Section 48E Clean Electricity Investment Credit, and the Section 45V Clean Hydrogen Production Credit. Critically, the law contains Foreign Entity of Concern (FEOC) provisions barring credit eligibility for vehicles or components linked to entities controlled by China, Russia, Iran, or North Korea.