ChristyD
Thu, 30/01/2025 – 14:41
The Basque Country has placed a very strong emphasis on the circular economy. In 2020, it published the Circular Economy Strategy of the Basque Country 2030, with a view to increasing material productivity and the circular material use rate, and reducing the waste generation rate per GDP unit. At the time, the circular economy in the Basque Country accounted for 1.12% of GDP and 18 463 jobs (2.08% of total jobs there) and they are determined to improve on that.
One very effective initiative is the Clean Technologies List. The Basque Country has full fiscal and tax autonomy and its government has approved a list of 64 clean technologies eligible for tax deductions amounting to 30% of the investment. The goal is to make production processes more efficient by using equipment with a high environmental performance and so accelerate the climate and circular transition of SMEs in the Basque Country. The List has just been updated to include five new technologies designed to advance the production of green hydrogen, bringing the total number of technologies to 64. The portfolio includes 11 renewable energy technologies, 19 circular economy technologies and 29 zero-pollution technologies.
The List offers an economic incentive in the form of a deduction from a business’s corporate tax rather than a subsidy for a very good reason: businesses can apply more easily and the public authorities can process the request more quickly. This is obviously a significant advantage for SMEs.
The List will be updated every year. It was devised in cooperation with the Dutch MIA VAMIL List and was the fruit of collaboration between the private and public sectors. The Basque Government has prioritised the circular economy and the energy transition, and Ihobe, the Basque Government’s environmental management agency, is confident that the 30% tax deduction will rise to 35% for some technologies in a few months. They want to reach EUR 75 million in circular investments in the Basque Country in a few years, with nearly a thousand SMEs benefitting from Clean Technologies List tax deductions.
The aim of the Clean Technologies List is to accelerate compliance with the objectives of the Basque Government’s energy, climate and environmental planning through technology, promoting Best Available Technologies and eco-innovation in SMEs with maximum cost-effectiveness.
The Basque Clean Technologies List is already available in Spanish and the official English version will be available in the near future.
