Today, EU energy ministers gathered in Luxembourg to discuss the state of play of the revision of three key files of the Clean Energy Package: the Energy Efficiency Directive, the Renewable Energy Directive and the Governance Regulation.
There was a signal from several EU ministers in support of higher ambition on the energy targets, providing new impetus for the upcoming trialogue meetings this Wednesday. However, from some this came with caveats which could undermine a strong 2030 climate and energy policy framework. It is therefore critical that the European Parliament persists with the essential elements of all three files in the final stage of negotiations.
In reaction to the outcome of the Energy Council, Wendel Trio, Director at Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, said:
“The Paris Agreement requires bold and scaled up action to boost the energy transition. As a bare minimum, the call of the European Parliament to increase the EU’s 2030 renewable energy and energy efficiency targets to at least 35 percent, backed up by a robust Governance framework and strong implementing policies, should be the way forward.”
“We urge the members of the European Parliament to stand firm at the upcoming EU trialogues, both on the targets, the long term vision to plan for net zero emissions by 2050 at latest, and on the necessary measures to achieve them to ensure the credibility of the future EU clean energy laws.” (1)
“Nearly 100 000 citizens throughout Europe are supporting families impacted by climate change in their lawsuit against the EU for its insufficient climate action. These families want the EU to increase its climate action ambition. One necessary step to achieve this is to have a bolder Clean Energy Package.” (2)
ENDS
Contact:
Nicolas Derobert, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, nicolas@caneurope.org, +32 483 62 18 88
Notes to editors:
(1) Necessary measures include:
- For the Renewable Energy Directive:
– Ensuring favourable provisions on renewable self-consumption;
– Ending support to the inefficient use biomass and putting in place sustainability requirements;
– Setting the lowest possible cap on crop-based biofuels, fully phasing out the support for the very worst forms. - For the Energy Efficiency Directive:
– Ensuring a strong energy savings obligation (Article 7) by eliminating the loopholes that undermine its effectiveness. This is a crucial delivery mechanism of energy savings which brings benefits of energy efficiency directly to final consumers such as households and small businesses. - For the Governance Regulation:
– Requiring member states to follow linear trajectories for the deployment of renewable energy and energy efficiency for the period 2021-2030;
– Ensuring robust monitoring and enforcement mechanisms should the 2030 targets for renewable energy and energy efficiency be at risk;
– Basing short term plans on sound, robust and ambitious long term strategies.
(2) Find all information about the People’s Climate Case campaign here: https://peoplesclimatecase.caneurope.org/
Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s leading NGO coalition fighting dangerous climate change. With over 150 member organisations from 35 European countries, representing over 1.700 NGOs and more than 40 million citizens, CAN Europe promotes sustainable climate, energy and development policies throughout Europe.
