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

On 23 May 2026 President Javier Milei, Economy Minister Luis Caputo, and Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni announced the "Régimen de Incentivo para Grandes Inversiones en Nuevas Industrias" (Super RIGI), and on 26 May 2026 submitted the bill (Mensaje 181/2026, expediente 0005-PE-2026) to the Cámara de Diputados — pending Congressional approval as of filing. The regime applies a US$1 billion minimum investment threshold (with ≥20% committed in the first two years), a 15% corporate income tax rate (vs 25% under the base 2024 RIGI), accelerated depreciation of 60%/20%/20% over three years, immediate export-duty exemption (vs year 3 under RIGI), import-tariff exemption, and 30-year regulatory stability across tax, customs, social security, and FX matters. A progressive FX-liberalisation schedule allows 20% / 40% / 100% free disposal of export-generated foreign currency in years 1 / 2 / 3+. Target sectors are industries that "do not currently exist or are in experimental/pilot phase in Argentina," including semiconductors, AI data centres, advanced biotech, 100% electric vehicles, lithium value chain (downstream processing, cathode, battery), green hydrogen, solar panels, wind turbines, onshore LNG, SMR nuclear, aerospace, uranium value chain, potassium and phosphorus fertilisers, and new petrochemicals.

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 UK Finance Act 2026, which received Royal Assent on 18 March 2026, establishes the primary statutory framework for the United Kingdom Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (UK CBAM), granting HM Revenue & Customs the assessment, collection, and enforcement powers needed to apply a carbon-content levy on imports of aluminium, cement, fertilisers, hydrogen, and iron & steel from 1 January 2027. Two tranches of draft secondary legislation (the CBAM Regulations 2026 covering administration, rate calculation/carbon-price relief, emissions and verification, and transitory provisions) were published for technical consultation on 10 February 2026 (closing 24 March 2026) and again in Spring 2026 (closing 21 May 2026). The mechanism imposes a UK ETS-linked benchmark price on the embedded carbon of in-scope imports, with a credit for verified third-country carbon prices already paid, and — unlike the EU CBAM — has no transitional reporting phase and a narrower initial sectoral scope (no electricity).

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq issued Royal Decree 39/2026 on 1 March 2026, published in the Sultanate of Oman Official Gazette Issue 1638 on 8 March 2026 (effective the following day), enacting a new Statute of the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ) and consolidating the Public Establishment for Industrial Estates under the unified OPAZ regulatory umbrella. The Statute restructures OPAZ's institutional architecture for administering Oman's 23 special economic zones, free zones, and industrial cities, expands OPAZ's supervisory and oversight powers — including project registration, licensing, permits, approvals, certificates, regulation of municipal services within zones — and mandates a single-window platform consolidating the full suite of zone-related services for investors. The decree is the institutional-governance complement to the substantive SEZ/FZ framework established by Royal Decree 38/2025 and operationalises the Vision 2040 economic-diversification strategy at the binding regulatory-authority layer, covering RO 22.4 bn (~USD 58 bn) in cumulative committed investment across the OPAZ-administered zone network.

Brazil's federal innovation-financing agency FINEP (Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos), under the MCTI/FNDCT umbrella, published a BRL 500 million (~USD 94.8 million) public call — "Finep Mais Inovação Brasil – Rodada 2 – Transição Energética" — offering non-repayable economic-subsidy grants for private-sector research, development and innovation projects across eight energy-transition technology lines: low-carbon electricity generation, energy storage, low-carbon hydrogen, biofuels, biogas/biomethane, and carbon capture/storage/use. Applicant companies must partner with at least one Scientific, Technological and Innovation Institution (ICT). Proposal submission opened 2026-03-03 and runs continuously until 2026-08-31 17:00 (Brasília time).

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 120.11 million grant to RWE Gas Storage West GmbH under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call, funding the "Hydrogen Storage Gronau-Epe RWE" project in Germany. The grant converts two existing salt caverns at the Gronau-Epe site to store up to 38 million Nm3 (3,420 tonnes) of renewable hydrogen working gas, and is described by CINEA as the first CEF Energy works grant awarded to a hydrogen project. It is one of 14 cross-border energy infrastructure Projects of Common/Mutual Interest sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call round.

On 28 January 2026 the European Commission's CINEA agency allocated a EUR 25.62 million grant to fund the "ACE Terminal Study" in the Netherlands under the 2025 Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) Energy call. The study supports development of an ammonia import and cracking (ammonia-to-hydrogen) terminal in the Port of Rotterdam, a joint venture of Royal Vopak, NV Nederlandse Gasunie and HES International. It is one of 14 cross-border energy infrastructure Projects of Common/Mutual Interest sharing roughly EUR 650 million from the same call round.

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) national budget, which the Global Trade Alert database logs as including a "Leading Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Promotion" financial-grant line administered by METI, effective with the fiscal year on 1 April 2026. NEDO -- METI's implementing R&D agency -- operationalises this budget line through competitive solicitations for hydrogen-supply-chain technology development and demonstration; the FY2026 tranche includes the "Advanced Technology Development and Demonstration Project for Hydrogen Society Model Construction" (水素社会モデル構築高度化技術開発・ 実証事業, project code P26004), soliciting proposals from 19 March to 22 April 2026 for regional hydrogen-supply-chain business models (survey phase up to 2 years; technology development/demonstration phase up to 5 years). The predecessor NEDO hydrogen-technology- development project line (FY2014-2025) was budgeted at roughly JPY 8.1 billion in its final year (FY2025); the FY2026-specific grant total was not disclosed in the sources reviewed.

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.

Uruguay's Poder Ejecutivo promulgated Decreto Nº 329/025 on 23 December 2025, comprehensively overhauling the general investment-promotion framework established under Ley Nº 16.906 (1998) and replacing Decreto 268/020. Administered by COMAP under the Ministerio de Economía y Finanzas, the decree entered into force on 1 February 2026 with a coexistence transition period through 30 April 2026 and became the sole operative instrument from 1 May 2026. The decree extends project timelines, creates tiered investment categories (including a mega-investment tier providing up to 25-year IRAE exemptions), expands incentives for SMEs, and explicitly calibrates the scoring matrix toward decentralisation, innovation, export capacity, and strategic sectors including data-centers, green hydrogen, sustainable forestry-pulp, agtech, and global business services.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC), Japan's state export-credit and outbound-investment finance institution, signed a loan agreement announced 2025-12-18/19 providing USD 98 million toward roughly USD 163 million in total co-financing (with Mizuho Bank) for NSC (Australia) Pty Ltd (NSCA), the Australian subsidiary of Nippon Sanso Holdings Corporation (TSE: 4091). The facility finances part of NSCA's July 2025 acquisition of the Coregas Group (Coregas Pty Ltd and Blacksmith Jacks Pty Ltd in Australia, Coregas NZ Limited in New Zealand), an industrial-gas producer with one of the Southern Hemisphere's largest production facilities and an active hydrogen-production development program. JBIC explicitly framed the loan as supporting "Japan's economic security" by strengthening the resilience of industrial-gas supply chains used across manufacturing, medical, and beverage industries.

KfW IPEX-Bank, the project- and export-finance arm of Germany's state-owned development bank KfW, announced on 16 December 2025 a EUR 150 million loan to Nowega GmbH, a Münster-based transmission system operator, to convert and expand its hydrogen infrastructure and develop biogas infrastructure. DekaBank co-financed a further EUR 30 million, bringing the total package to EUR 180 million. The financing supports converting existing high-pressure gas pipelines (part of Nowega's 1,500 km network) for hydrogen transport as part of Germany's national hydrogen core network (Wasserstoffkernnetz) build-out; KfW IPEX-Bank previously provided Nowega EUR 40 million for the same purpose in 2020. Global Trade Alert separately logs the transaction as a "red"-flagged state-linked lending-support intervention (state act 95711 / intervention 151431).

The European Commission approved on 15 December 2025 a EUR 408 million Spanish state aid scheme (SA.119880) under the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF), funded by the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), to support decarbonisation of manufacturing industry. The scheme funds direct grants — capped at EUR 200 million per company or project — for investments in electrification, switching to renewable or low-carbon hydrogen, waste heat recovery, and carbon capture, storage and utilisation (CCUS) across a wide range of sectors including chemicals, ceramics, paper and metallurgy. Aid is awarded on a first-come, first-served basis to enterprises of all sizes, inside and outside the EU Emissions Trading System, and cannot finance increases in production capacity; Spain expects the scheme to deliver annual emissions savings of around 1.6 megatonnes of CO2, with beneficiary projects required to become operational within 60 months of the aid grant.

The Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area (BDA, also known as Yizhuang) Management Committee issued Notice 京技管发〔2025〕33号 on 9 December 2025 ("Several Measures to Accelerate the Cultivation of the Future Energy Industry"), effective through 31 December 2028. The package subsidises R&D, shared technology platforms, industrialisation projects and demonstration deployment across new-type energy storage (solid-state batteries, supercapacitors, flow batteries), clean-energy generation (advanced wind, perovskite solar, hydrogen production/storage), low-carbon transition tech (CCUS, smart grid control) and fusion energy (magnetic and inertial confinement). R&D support runs up to 30% of annual enterprise R&D spend; demonstration-scenario procurement is subsidised up to 30% of cost capped at RMB 500,000 per project; first-of-kind product recognition pays up to RMB 150,000 per project per year. Global Trade Alert logged the underlying state act (95719) as a single "state aid, unspecified" intervention (151443).

Morocco's Loi de Finances n° 50-25 for fiscal year 2026, promulgated by Dahir n° 1-25-67 of 10 December 2025 and published in Bulletin Officiel n° 7465 bis of 16 December 2025, sets the FY2026 customs-tariff schedule (continuing the EU Common External Tariff alignment process at 2.5%/17.5%/40% tiers with sector-specific input reductions), amends the fiscal regimes for Zones d'Accélération Industrielle and Casablanca Finance City, and delivers the 2026 tranche of the multi-year IS (corporate-tax) rate-convergence schedule under Framework Law n° 69-19. The law also extends green-investment fiscal accelerators aligned with the EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism and the EU-Morocco Strategic Partnership on Sustainable Raw Materials Value Chains, and contains phosphate-sector fiscal provisions affecting OCP Group's DAP/MAP/TSP export treatment. Entry into force: 1 January 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.

Iberdrola Clientes' Project NOON — a 120 MW electrolysis renewable-hydrogen plant in Spain targeting 161,000 tonnes of RFNBO hydrogen production over its first 10 years — was awarded a EUR 135.5 million (USD 140.9 million) grant under the European Commission's Innovation Fund second domestic hydrogen auction (IF24). Iberdrola announced the award on 2 December 2025; the formal Grant Agreement with the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment Executive Agency (CINEA) was signed on 20 January 2026 as part of a batch of six IF24 projects (Spain, Finland, Norway) completing grant preparation. NOON is one of the eight Spain-based projects selected in the IF24 main lot.

Korea's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE) announced the K-Shipbuilding Strategy for Next-Generation Market Dominance on 15 November 2025 at the emergency economy ministerial meeting and exports-and-investment promotion meeting. The strategy deploys KRW 710 billion (~USD 534 million) by 2028 across three policy directions: (1) technology super-gap via autonomous self-navigating vessels, zero-emission ships (LNG/ammonia/hydrogen tri-fuel), and AI-driven design and smart shipbuilding; (2) manufacturing upgrade through smart shipyard investment, robotics distribution, and improved foreign-manpower visa pathways; and (3) legal infrastructure including a new dedicated "Promotion of Industrialization and Technological Innovation of the Next-Generation Shipbuilding Industry" Act. Korea's overarching target is to capture ≥80% of the next-generation shipbuilding market, explicitly in competition with China's state-subsidised fleet expansion.

The Canada Infrastructure Bank provided a CAD 139.5 million (approx. USD 99.4 million) loan to BC Hydro, a provincial Crown utility, to fund the early-works phase of the North Coast Transmission Line (NCTL) in northwest British Columbia. Early works cover project planning, engineering, fieldwork, procurement, First Nations consultation and stakeholder engagement ahead of construction. The financing responds to anticipated electricity demand growth from port operations, mining (including critical-minerals projects), hydrogen production, LNG and technology sectors that is expected to exceed the capacity of the region's existing single 500-kV transmission line from Prince George to Terrace.

Singapore's Energy Market Authority announced on 27 October 2025 that it will award up to S$44 million under the Advanced Combined Cycle Gas Turbine (CCGT) Incentive Scheme to Keppel's Infrastructure Division and Sembcorp Industries, operators of the first two advanced CCGTs in Singapore. The grant offsets the initial cost disadvantage of adopting higher-efficiency, hydrogen-ready CCGT units — each unit is expected to emit at least 200,000 tonnes less carbon annually than existing plants — with the units to be operational by December 2026 and 2027 respectively. This is a domestic industrial-policy subsidy with no cross-border trade restriction; filed for IPTM's tracking of state financing for power-sector decarbonisation capex.

The Romanian Government adopted HG 855/2025 on 9 October 2025, approving the National Hydrogen Strategy 2025-2030 with a 2050 perspective and its binding Implementation Action Plan. The strategy sets a production target of 152.9 kt/year of renewable hydrogen by 2030 (interim: 48.7 kt/yr by 2027) and 2,130 MW of electrolyser capacity, with EUR 115 million allocated for a first ~60 MW tranche via PNRR/RRF, Modernisation Fund, and Just Transition Fund pathways. It designates five "hydrogen valleys" co-locating producers with hard-to-abate industrial off-takers (steel, chemicals, fertilisers, heavy transport) and anchors Romania's transposition of EU RED III and alignment with the EU Hydrogen Bank auction architecture.

Spain's state development bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), committed up to EUR 47 million (USD 55 million) in equity across two green infrastructure funds: up to EUR 24.5 million to Kobus Energy Transition I, FCR (solar, battery storage and hydrogen, target size EUR 70 million) and up to EUR 22.5 million to Azora European Climate Solutions Fund, FCR (solar, geothermal, industrialised/sustainable construction, target size EUR 200 million). Both commitments carry a 50% EU InvestEU guarantee. The new tranches bring ICO's cumulative InvestEU-backed green-fund investment to EUR 250 million, with a stated potential to mobilise over EUR 500 million once private capital is included.

On 30 September 2025 Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a facility agreement providing up to USD 1.8 billion (JBIC's portion) to Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), co-financed alongside Mizuho Bank (agent) and HSBC's Tokyo branch for a total facility of USD 3 billion. The loan is explicitly structured to support "stable imports of crude oil by Japanese companies" and is the seventh JBIC loan extended to ADNOC for this purpose. A companion MOU signed 4 November 2025 at ADIPEC 2025 broadens the JBIC-ADNOC partnership into downstream energy-transition sectors (hydrogen, ammonia, chemicals).

On 18 September 2025, the Australian Government published the Net Zero Plan 2050 and six sectoral emissions-reduction plans covering Electricity & Energy, Industry, Transport, Built Environment, Agriculture & Land, and Resources. The Net Zero Plan establishes the overarching policy architecture to achieve Australia's 62–70% emissions-reduction target (below 2005 levels) by 2035 and net zero by 2050, structured around five "CLEAN" strategic priorities. The six sector plans provide detailed decarbonisation pathways, capex envelopes, and policy-instrument linkages that frame operation of the Future Made in Australia Act, the Critical Minerals Production Tax Incentive, the Capacity Investment Scheme, and the Safeguard Mechanism for the following decade. The plans were released simultaneously with Australia's updated 2035 Nationally Determined Contribution submitted to the UNFCCC.

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 adopted Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2026/1045 of 12 May 2026, imposing a provisional anti-dumping duty on imports of certain alkyl phosphonic acids and their sodium salts originating in the People's Republic of China — specifically 2-phosphonobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylic acid (PBTC) and its sodium salt (Tetrasodium hydrogen 2-phosphonatobutane-1,2,4- tricarboxylate, PBTC-Na4), in solid form or aqueous solution, falling under CN code 2931 49 80. Provisional duties range from 182.9% to 219.4% depending on the exporting producer. The measure entered into force on 14 May 2026, the day after publication in the Official Journal, and follows an investigation initiated on 18 September 2025 pursuant to a complaint lodged on 7 August 2025 by LANXESS Deutschland GmbH. PBTC is a scale-inhibitor/chelating agent used in industrial water treatment, oilfield services and detergent formulation.

SARS inserted rebate item 460.06/1516.20.90/01.08 into Part 2 of Schedule No. 4 to the Customs and Excise Act, 1964 (Government Gazette 53334, Notice R.6597, 12 September 2025), giving effect to ITAC Report No. 739. The item creates a temporary full duty rebate — palm oil currently attracts a 10% general import duty — on palm oil (not fractionated, partly or wholly hydrogenated, refined but not further prepared) used to manufacture soaps and organic surface-active products (HS 3401.1). ITAC found palm oil cannot be grown anywhere within the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) for climatic reasons and that domestically available soft oils (sunflower, soybean) are not a viable substitute without costly reformulation, so it recommended waiving the duty on the applicant's behalf. Applicant: Unilever South Africa.

On 31 August 2025, Germany's federally mandated export credit agency (branded "Euler Hermes" / AGA, operated by Euler Hermes Aktiengesellschaft on behalf of the Federal Republic) confirmed export credit guarantee cover — spanning manufacturing risk, supplier credit, contract bond, and buyer credit cover — backing SMS group GmbH's (Düsseldorf) export of a cold rolling complex to H2 Green Steel's hydrogen-based direct-reduction steelworks under construction in Boden, northern Sweden. The guarantee de-risks a German capital-goods export underpinning one of Europe's first large-scale near-zero-carbon primary steel plants. Global Trade Alert logs this as a state trade-finance intervention; the guaranteed amount itself is not publicly disclosed.

South Korea's National Assembly passed an amendment to the Korea Development Bank (KDB) Act on 2025-08-27 (428th session, 3rd plenary sitting, 164-1 with 164 votes in favour of 165 cast), raising KDB's statutory capital ceiling from KRW 30 trillion to KRW 45 trillion and creating a new "Advanced Strategic Industry Fund" inside KDB. The fund is capitalised at KRW 50 trillion or more over five years via low-rate government-guaranteed bonds and is earmarked for the ten officially designated advanced strategic industries (AI, semiconductors, bio/vaccines, defense, robotics, hydrogen, secondary batteries, displays, future mobility) via cheap loans and equity investment. KDB intends to use the fund as seed capital for a wider "National Growth Fund" that blends in private and pension capital to reach KRW 100 trillion+ in total strategic-industry financing over five years.

The Henan Provincial People's Government issued Yuzheng [2025] No. 18 (豫政〔2025〕18号), "Several Policy Measures to Support Enterprises in Reducing Costs and Increasing Efficiency" (河南省支持企业降本增效若干政策 措施), on 2025-08-04, effective on issuance. The package is a horizontal, cross-sector cost-reduction bundle spanning ten cost categories: R&D subsidies of up to 30% of investment (capped at RMB 5-20 million per project depending on program), equipment-renewal loan interest subsidies and technical-transformation grants (15-20% of investment, capped at RMB 5-10 million), labor-cost relief (unemployment-insurance rate held at 1%, workers'-comp rate cut 20%, unemployment-insurance stabilization rebates of 30-60% through end-2025), financing-cost relief (RMB 160 billion 2025 lending target to tech enterprises, up to RMB 4 million in start-up guarantee loans), logistics-cost relief (toll exemptions for hydrogen trucks and 30% toll discounts for electric trucks through 2025-12-31, RMB 10,000-140,000 scrap-and-renew subsidies for aging trucks), and import/export-cost relief (tariff and quick-approval facilitation for integrated-circuit and advanced-equipment imports, up to 70% subsidy on overseas certification costs).

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) committed AUD 44.9 million to Calix Limited to build a demonstration plant for its Zero Emissions Steel Technology (ZESTY), targeting up to 30,000 tonnes per year of low-carbon hydrogen direct reduced iron (HDRI) and hot briquetted iron (HBI) using renewable electricity and hydrogen instead of coking coal. The funding builds on prior ARENA-funded engineering studies and also supports early-stage engineering for a larger commercial-scale ZESTY plant, positioning low-emissions iron/steel as a strategic priority industry for Australia.

On 18 July 2025 Kazakhstan's Parliament adopted Law No. 215-VIII ZRK "On Amendments and Additions to Certain Legislative Acts of the Republic of Kazakhstan on Taxation Matters," which abolishes the legacy priority-investment-project and special-investment-contract regimes under the Entrepreneurial Code and replaces them with three new contractual instruments — the Investment Agreement, the Investment Obligations Agreement, and the Simplified Investment Contract — effective 1 January 2026. The law is the binding legal operationalisation of the October 2024 Concept of Investment Policy until 2029 (filed), the US-Kazakhstan Critical Minerals MOU of November 2025 (filed), and the EU-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Roadmap 2025-2026 (filed), providing a contractual-certainty architecture for the USD 150 billion FDI-attraction target that previous "priority investment project" frameworks lacked. A statutory effectiveness-evaluation obligation (first of its kind in Central Asia) for assessing the socio-economic impact of granted investment preferences enters force separately on 1 July 2026.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-07-11 for approximately USD 46 million with MGC Pure Chemicals America, Inc. (MPCA), the US subsidiary of Mitsubishi Gas Chemical Company. Co-financed alongside Bank of Yokohama, Hachijuni Bank, and Joyo Bank, the total co-financing package reaches USD 77 million. Proceeds fund expansion of MPCA's Arizona production capacity for ultra-pure hydrogen peroxide and ultra-pure ammonium hydroxide — semiconductor-grade chemicals used for silicon-wafer cleaning and etching — as JBIC states, to strengthen Japanese supply-chain resilience and support US semiconductor manufacturing demand. This is MPCA's second JBIC-backed expansion loan, following a USD 36 million (JBIC portion) facility signed in April 2024 for the same production line.

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.

Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) signed a loan agreement on 2025-06-30 for USD 180 million (JBIC portion) with Toray Composite Materials America, Inc. (CMA), the US subsidiary of Toray Industries, Inc. Co-financed with Mizuho Bank and seven other Japanese financial institutions, the total co-financing package reaches USD 300 million. Proceeds fund CMA's manufacturing and sale of carbon fiber for high-pressure gas tanks used in hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles (FCVs), which JBIC states supports maintaining and improving the international competitiveness of Japan's carbon fiber industry and strengthening supply-chain resilience.

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 17 June 2025, at the Paris Air Show, the UK Department for Business and Trade announced over £250 million in joint government-and-industry funding for green aerospace research and technology projects, drawn from a £975 million allocation to the Aerospace Technology Institute (ATI) Programme for 2025-2030. The tranche covers 11 major projects plus 18 smaller initiatives, led by Airbus, Rolls-Royce and Intelligent Energy, targeting hydrogen propulsion, additive manufacturing and engine-efficiency technologies aimed at net-zero aviation.

Spain's state development bank, Instituto de Crédito Oficial (ICO), granted a loan of up to EUR 65 million directly to ITP Aero, a Zamudio (Vizcaya)-headquartered global leader in aircraft-engine design, development, manufacturing and maintenance. The facility partially finances ITP Aero's 2025-2033 Investment Plan, which is centred on decarbonisation R&D — electrification, hydrogen propulsion, and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) — as the company targets net-zero climate impact by 2050. ICO states ITP Aero engines power 40% of all annual commercial aircraft engine deliveries and that over 5,000 of its engines are currently in service.

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.

Hydrom launched Round 3 of Oman's green hydrogen land auction on 30 April 2025, offering a flexible Duqm land block of up to 300 km² with a minimum project footprint of 100 km². A 9-month preparation window runs from the RFQ release (30 April 2025) to proposal submission in early 2026, with project awards to follow. Developers may explore selling surplus renewable electricity to the national grid, and will access the planned 2,000-km hydrogen pipeline and a liquid hydrogen export corridor linking Duqm to the Netherlands and Germany. Round 3 is an implementing-auction instrument within the umbrella 2024 Oman Green Hydrogen Strategy; the two prior rounds have already secured USD 49 bn in investment commitments and more than 1 Mtpa of green hydrogen production capacity by 2030 from more than 30 GW of dedicated renewables.

France updated its 2020 National Low-Carbon Hydrogen Strategy at the Comité interministériel de l'Innovation on 10 April 2025, releasing SNH II under the direction of the Prime Minister and Industry Minister Marc Ferracci. The 2025 actualisation revises capacity targets to 6.5 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production by 2030 and 10 GW by 2035, funded within the France 2030 plan's €9 billion hydrogen envelope (€4 bn for electrolysers, €1.5 bn for end-uses, €2 bn for IPCEI Hy2Tech/Hy2Use French share). A new €4 billion price-support mechanism guarantees low-carbon hydrogen competitiveness against fossil hydrogen for 15 years; the strategy aligns France's "décarboné" taxonomy to include both nuclear-electricity-based and renewable-electricity-based hydrogen, distinct from EU RFNBO additionality rules.

Sultan Haitham bin Tariq issued Royal Decree 38/2025 on 7 April 2025, published in the Sultanate of Oman Official Gazette on 13 April 2025, enacting a unified statutory framework for Oman's special economic zones (SEZs) and free zones (FZs) under the Public Authority for Special Economic Zones and Free Zones (OPAZ). The law consolidates the previously fragmented regimes governing Duqm SEZ, Salalah Free Zone, Sohar Free Zone, Al Mazunah Free Zone, and Knowledge Oasis Muscat into a single overarching statutory architecture, granting a 10-year corporate income tax exemption (renewable for high-value activities), 100% foreign ownership, full capital and profit repatriation, customs-duty exemptions on construction inputs and operational goods, and a statutory one-stop-shop through OPAZ. The law establishes OPAZ as the consolidated regulatory authority with ring-fenced powers over labour, immigration, customs, environment, and land-use within zone boundaries, and creates a new statutory basis for OPAZ to negotiate sector-specific concessions using usufruct, leasehold, and sub-concession instruments. Royal Decree 38/2025 is the principal Vision 2040 FDI-architecture instrument — the parent statute under which the GFCL Salalah LFP battery-materials usufruct, the Hyport Duqm green-ammonia project, and the Karwa Motors EV-assembly arrangement all operate.

At the first-ever EU-Central Asia Summit in Samarkand (4 April 2025), the European Commission and Kazakhstan endorsed the EU-Kazakhstan Strategic Partnership Roadmap 2025-2026, operationalising the 7 November 2022 MoU on Sustainable Raw Materials, Batteries, and Renewable Hydrogen with concrete two-year workstreams: geological exploration cooperation, joint R&I programmes (Horizon Europe linkages), skills and training cooperation, and promotion of ESG standards aligned with the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (CRMA, Reg. (EU) 2024/1252). The Roadmap positions Kazakhstan as the EU's primary Central-Asian CRMA Strategic Partner under Art. 37, unlocking a potential multi-billion-EUR Global Gateway financing pipeline and structurally rebalancing KZ critical-mineral export flows away from China/Russia dependencies.

Norway's Ministry of Trade, Industry and Fisheries (Nærings- og fiskeridepartementet) submitted Meld. St. 16 (2024-2025) — "The Norwegian industry – competitiveness for a new time" — to the Storting on 28 March 2025 under Minister Cecilie Myrseth. The White Paper is Norway's first comprehensive industrial-policy framework in over a decade and sets out six political priorities: (i) access to clean and affordable energy via hydropower, offshore wind and green hydrogen; (ii) high-quality workforce with dual apprenticeship and digital-skills tracks; (iii) accelerating innovation and technology through R&D investment and stronger research-institute-to-business linkages; (iv) emission reduction across industrial sectors; (v) expanding international market access and reshaping Norway's position in the extended European value chain; and (vi) strategic and critical value-chain mapping, paralleled by a simultaneously launched cross-government mapping initiative. The White Paper is a non-binding policy framework but is the framing instrument under which sector-specific measures (CRMA-aligned mineral support, hydrogen funding, offshore-wind capacity build-out) will be sequenced.

On 26 February 2025 the European Commission adopted the "Clean Industrial Deal" (CID), Communication COM(2025) 85 final, framed as a joint roadmap for competitiveness and decarbonisation. The CID bundles state-aid simplification, energy-cost relief, lead-market creation, capital mobilisation and circular-economy mandates into a single industrial strategy targeting both energy-intensive industries (steel, metals, chemicals, cement) and clean-tech manufacturing (batteries, solar, wind, heat pumps, electrolyzers). The Commission claims the package will mobilise more than €100 billion of public-and-private financing for EU-made clean manufacturing through a strengthened Innovation Fund, amendments to the InvestEU Regulation (up to €50bn additional guarantee capacity) and a proposed Industrial Decarbonisation Bank. CID directly precedes the Clean Industrial Deal State Aid Framework (CISAF, adopted 25 June 2025) and seeds legislative work on an Industrial Accelerator Act, a Circular Economy Act, and a strengthened CBAM. Severity 4 on mixed basis: explicit €100bn+ quant headline plus qualitative breadth across the EU industrial perimeter, formally re-anchoring the von der Leyen II mandate around competitiveness rather than pure decarbonisation.

On 1 February 2025, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the National Manufacturing Mission (NMM) in the Union Budget 2025-26 as a horizontal umbrella framework extending the 2014 "Make in India" architecture across small, medium and large industries. The mission rests on five focal areas: (i) ease and cost of doing business; (ii) a future-ready workforce for in-demand jobs; (iii) a vibrant and dynamic MSME sector; (iv) availability of technology; and (v) quality manufacturing. It will deliver policy support, execution roadmaps, and a governance/monitoring framework binding central ministries with states. NMM specifically commits to building a clean-tech manufacturing ecosystem with explicit coverage of solar PV cells, EV batteries, motors and controllers, electrolysers, wind turbines, very-high-voltage transmission equipment, and grid-scale batteries — i.e., the full hardware stack for India's Panchamrit (500 GW non-fossil by 2030), FAME-III EV ramp, and National Green Hydrogen Mission. NMM is the first horizontal Indian manufacturing-mission instrument in the IPTM register; existing IND entries are sector-specific PLIs (electronics, batteries, steel, semiconductors) and the National Critical Mineral Mission. Operational rollout flows through subsequent Cabinet-level scheme approvals (e.g. Biopharma SHAKTI ₹10,000 cr, Chemical Parks ₹600 cr in BE 2026-27); the mission itself does not carry a single headline outlay because it is the framework rather than an instrument.