PRESS RELEASE
FOSSIL GAS DRESSED UP LIKE A CHRISTMAS TREE: EU’S NEW MEASURES NOT IN LINE WITH CLIMATE OBJECTIVES
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The Commission’s energy proposals still give a role to fossil fuels
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Buildings’ transformations far from promoting needed energy savings
Brussels, 15th December 2021 – The 2nd part of the ‘Fit for 55’ climate and energy package unveiled today by the European Commission doesn’t deliver on the pathway needed to reach the 1.5°C target and climate neutrality by 2040. Specifically, the set of legislative proposals related to gas reveal a tendency of giving fossil gas and hydrogen a prominent role instead of creating market rules that facilitate the decline of its use.
“At the core of the gas and methane legislation we would have expected to find clear signs towards the phase out of fossil gas by 2035 and towards a transition to a 100% renewable energy system that protects everyone against climate change, especially the most vulnerable. Instead, we have found ourselves with a disappointing Christmas tree decorated with inadequate and unsightly fossil gas baubles around which we refuse to sing carols,” said Esther Bollendorff, CAN Europe’s EU Gas Policy Coordinator.
The Commission’s announcement would have also been the opportunity to brighten up the Buildings Directive and reap all the multiple benefits linked to highly energy efficient, sustainable and fossil fuel-free buildings.
There have been only timid steps forward, especially on the measures needed to trigger a real transformation such as mandatory energy performance standards. It is time for co-legislators to raise the bar on ambition to ensure that the vast energy saving and emission reduction potential of the building sector is not left untapped.
The ‘Fit for 55’ and other EU measures must all point in the same direction and help go well beyond the climate target of at least 55% net greenhouse gas emission reduction towards at least 65% emission cuts in 2030.
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NOTE TO EDITORS
- Gas package. Policy briefing, NGO letter calling to rework the package.
- Methane. Blog post and Policy briefing.
- Buildings Directive. Buildings blog post, NGO letter, Policy briefing on the EPBD revision
- State Aid. CAN Europe’s response to State aid CEEAG public consultation and a joint NGO letter to the Commission
- Taxonomy. Letter to commissioner Timmermans
CONTACTS
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Nina Tramullas, nina.tramullas@caneurope.org.
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Rachel Brabbins, rachel.brabbins@caneurope.org.