Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2666 actions· ✨ 90 recent

On 3 September 2025 the Union Cabinet approved the Incentive Scheme for Promotion of Critical Minerals Recycling (CMRIS), a ₹1,500 crore (~USD 180 million) capex and opex subsidy programme running FY2025-26 to FY2030-31 under the National Critical Mineral Mission (NCMM). The scheme provides a 20% capex subsidy on plant and machinery plus 40–60% opex incentives to entities recycling critical minerals from secondary feedstocks — e-waste, lithium-ion battery scrap, and end-of-life vehicle catalytic converters. A Ministry of Mines gazette notification formalising the scheme was issued on 8 September 2025.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved BRL 76.4 million in financing to Biometano São Leopoldo S.A. (Grupo Solví) to build a biomethane production plant in São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do Sul, with capacity of 32,400 m3/day. The credit covers about 80.1% of total project investment and is split between BRL 61.1 million from the Fundo Clima (National Climate Change Fund) and BRL 15.3 million from Finem. The plant will purify landfill biogas from the CRVR sanitary landfill (Solví Group) into biomethane, avoiding an estimated 80,000+ tonnes of CO2-equivalent per year.

Brazil's national development bank BNDES approved BRL 131.1 million in financing to Gás Verde for two projects: the country's first green-CO2 recovery plant, in Seropédica (Rio de Janeiro), and a new biomethane production plant in Igarassu (Pernambuco). The Seropédica unit will capture and purify CO2 co-produced with biomethane, reaching approximately 100 tonnes/day; the Igarassu plant will process biogas from the Ecoparque Pernambuco sanitary landfill into 45,600 Nm3/day of biomethane. Roughly BRL 89.3 million of the total credit is drawn from the Fundo Clima (National Climate Change Fund).

The European Commission approved, under EU State aid rules, a EUR 1.2 billion Dutch scheme known as NIKI (Nationale Investeringsregeling Klimaatprojecten Industrie) on 20 May 2025. Administered by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, the scheme funds direct grants to industrial enterprises (manufacturing, waste management and remediation activities, SBI code C and E-37/38.2) that cut lifecycle greenhouse-gas emissions, and is the first EU State aid measure to run direct decarbonisation projects and resource-efficiency/circularity projects in the same competitive bidding process. Aid is awarded competitively by lowest euros requested per tonne of CO2-equivalent abated; each project must achieve a minimum lifecycle GHG reduction of 100,000 tonnes and request at least EUR 30 million in aid. The scheme runs through 31 December 2029.

Vietnam's Ministry of Industry and Trade issued Circular 18/2024/TT-BCT on 8 October 2024, suspending the temporary-import, re-export, and transit ("tạm nhập, tái xuất, chuyển khẩu") trade of a list of scrap materials keyed to the HS-based commodity list in Ministry of Finance Circular 31/2022/TT-BTC. The suspension runs 1 January 2025 to 31 December 2029. It targets traders using Vietnam as an entrepot for scrap shipments rather than domestic recyclers, and does not apply to genuine transit trade where goods move directly from the exporting to the importing country without clearing Vietnamese customs. The stated purpose is to prevent environmental contamination, curb trade fraud, and stop Vietnam becoming a dumping ground for scrap/waste from other countries.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1542 establishes a comprehensive EU statutory framework for all battery categories (portable, SLI, LMT, EV, industrial), imposing supply-chain due-diligence obligations for cobalt, lithium, nickel, and natural graphite; mandatory recycled-content thresholds; carbon-footprint declarations; a digital battery passport; and ambitious collection and recycling-efficiency targets, with rolling application dates running from February 2024 through August 2036. It repeals Battery Directive 2006/66/EC and applies to every economic operator placing batteries on the EU market, binding every EV, consumer-electronics, and stationary-storage supply chain that relies on DRC cobalt, Australian/Chilean lithium, Indonesian/Philippine nickel, and Chinese/Mozambican graphite.