Trump pause on clean funding is 'window of opportunity' for Europe, Poland says

By Kate Abnett

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump's order to pause spending from the country's climate and infrastructure laws is a chance for Europe to attract clean tech investments, Poland's deputy climate minister told Reuters.

Trump last week ordered a pause on funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act - Biden-era schemes for spending and tax credits in clean industries. The White House said the pause targets programmes that discourage fossil fuel development or support electric vehicles.

"I think this is our moment. This is our window of opportunity, because many companies I've had conversations with, they were complaining about the IRA," said Krzysztof Bolesta, Poland's State Secretary for climate.

Bolesta said companies had warned they would move investments to the United States to avoid burdensome European regulations and benefit from IRA subsidies, which initially aimed at providing some $400 billion of support.

"Now I think the money will be harder to get in America, and we have our chance, so I just very much hope we will not blow it," he said in an interview.

It is unclear how much funding will be directly affected by Trump's IRA order. The Biden administration had said the vast majority of grants for clean energy programmes, for example, had already been awarded in contracts signed off by the Biden government.

But the U.S. government's U-turn on support for clean industrial investments coincides with Brussels preparing a new European Union industrial policy, due to be published next month, aimed at supporting industry as it decarbonises.

Leaked draft documents and EU officials suggest this "Clean Industrial Deal" package will include simpler, faster rules for state aid investments in industry and public procurement rules that give preference to locally-made versions of certain technologies.

Bolesta said a priority is to simplify complex EU rules, including the carbon border tariff (CBAM), which will impose CO2 emissions costs on imported goods from 2026.

"We hear encouraging voices that CBAM will be simplified as part of the Clean Industrial Deal," he said.

"Because we see when working on the implementation that it could create a lot of red tape, especially for smaller companies."

(Reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Angus MacSwan)