The CAEF Year­book presents an over­view of rel­ev­ant data in unique depth and scope for the European Foundry Industry. A glance at the data shows that cli­mate policy is more import­ant than ever and that the struc­tural changes that the man­u­fac­tur­ing industry is exper­i­en­cing in this con­text have already affected European foundries before the cur­rent Covid-19 pan­demic. Bal­anced polit­ical frame­work con­di­tions are there­fore cru­cial to help foundries to emerge stronger from the trans­form­a­tion pro­cess, which is gath­er­ing momentum, as an import­ant corner­stone of the cir­cu­lar eco­nomy and an innov­at­ive com­pon­ent of the man­u­fac­tur­ing industry.