Europe risks falling behind the US and China in efforts to decarbonise unless it legislates for a radical expansion of renewable energy, said leaders of the bloc’s chemicals and wind power industries.
This would require a shake-up of national planning rules, and greater coherence in energy investment across the EU, according to Martin Brudermüller, chair of the world’s biggest chemicals company, BASF, and Andreas Nauen, chief executive of the second-largest wind turbine maker, Siemens Gamesa Renewable Energy.
Both China and the US are taking a more pragmatic approach to enabling their industries to cut emissions, said Brudermüller in an interview with the Financial Times.