Does Belgium's sustainability transition offer green growth opportunities?

The global sustainability transition offers green growth opportunities, including for Belgian players. While the scale of Belgium’s sustainability transition may seem daunting, the country also has the potential to tap new sources of green growth.

How can Belgium achieve net-zero emissions?

How Belgium can have both As Belgium works toward net-zero emissions, it has opportunities to accelerate its progress while also pursuing green growth. Through the Paris Agreement, Belgium has committed to achieve net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050, but the country faces substantial challenges along that road.

Could Belgium become a green trading hub?

Our analysis suggests three potential opportunities for Belgium as this trading accelerates: first, to become a transit hub for hydrogen and derivatives, green feedstock, green molecules, and CO 212; second, to serve as an electricity trading hub for Europe; and third, to be a processing hub for green molecules (Exhibit 5).

Does Belgium have a patent specialisation in energy technology?

In the energy‐related technological fields, patent applications pertain mostly to technologies related to RES and, more recently, to energy storage solutions. Despite these new developments, Belgium’s patenting specialisation in the energy technology fields has lost ground.

Does Belgium have a specialisation in energy technology?

Despite these new developments, Belgium’s patenting specialisation in the energy technology fields has lost ground. In the transport‐related fields, most patent applications concern road and air transport equipment, almost exclusively by a single company in each sector.

What can a net-zero transition do for Belgium?

At the same time, it looks at the significant business opportunities that the global net-zero transition could create for Belgian companies and the economy more broadly. The benefits offered by an orderly transition over time include an increase in energy security, as well as clear growth opportunities in Belgium and beyond.