Article on REPowerEU

REPowerEU: the EU Revolution

Brussels,

by eEuropa

The European Council agrees on 30 May 2022 that the sixth package of sanctions against Russia will cover crude oil, as well as petroleum products, delivered from Russia into Member States, with a temporary exception for crude oil delivered by pipeline.

On 18 May 2022 the European Commission presented the REPowerEU Plan, already announced in March. The Plan was discussed last night by the 27 European Leaders.

This plan is a sort of response to the energy problems facing Europe. The need to give more courage to the ambitions already expressed for 2030 and 2050 in the energy field and that the war in Ukraine has made more urgent.

This means that there is a double urgency to transform Europe's energy system:

reducing the import of fossil fuel (now from Russia)
tackling the climate crisis.

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The European Commission thinks that "by acting as a Union, Europe can phase out the dependency on Russian fossil fuels faster" through:

energy savings
diversification of energy supplies
renewable energy
smartly combine investments and reforms

Purposes of REPowerEU

Let's see the the purposes of the Plan:

1. Energy savings

Here the measures proposed by the European Commission:

increase to 13% the binding target in the Energy Efficiency Directive
amend the directive on the energy performance of buildings
approve the Eco-design Regulations for sustainable products.
behaviour modification. Some states are introducing rules to reduce consumption and the European Commission has launched, in collaboration with the International Energy Agency (IEA), a nine-point plan "Do my part" to reduce energy consumption in EU. It is estimated that there will be a 5% reduction in demand for gas (about 13 billion cubic meters) and for oil (about 16 million toe).
Member States are asked to use reduced VAT rates for highly efficient heating systems and for building insulation and other energy pricing measures, which encourage the switch to heat pumps and the purchase of more appliances. efficient. Such measures should cushion social and distributional impacts, eg. focusing on vulnerable families struggling to pay their energy bills and to manage the potential impact of the accelerated energy transition on the labor market, with immediate redevelopment and redevelopment needs.

Enhanced implementation and ambitious updating of National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) are key to achieving REPowerEU's goals. NECPs play a crucial role in enhancing investor confidence and investment predictability. They provide a good framework for planning and encouraging the reduction of fossil fuel use.

By the end of 2022, a guide for updating Member States of their National Plans (PNEC) will be published.

The regions and municipalities are naturally involved in this objective, and they should launch awareness-raising, information and support programs. They should also do energy audits and energy management plans, with the aim of saving energy with the involvement of citizens. As well as through the European Mission on Smart Cities (zero climate impact) and the European Urban Initiative in the context of cohesion policy.

2. Diversifying energy imports

Here are the initiatives and the proposed measures by the European Commission:

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3. Transition to Renewable energy

The European Commission suggests a massive speed-up and scale-up in renewable energy in power generation, industry, buildings and transport, useful to meet the climatic targets, lower prices and to accelerate the EU phasing out of Russian fossil fuels.

The Commission proposed:

45% of the energy generation capacity with renewables by 2030 (up from 40% envisaged under Fit for 55)
+100% of GW of solar photovoltaic newly installed by 2025 (from 160 GW to 320 GW) and + another 100% by 2030 (from 320 GW to 600 GW)
European Solar Rooftop Initiative anchored around a legally binding EU solar rooftop obligation for certain categories of buildings
faster wind energy deployment, supply chains to be strengthened and accelerate permitting
10 million units of heat pumps over the next 5 years
enhance the regulatory framework and ensure life-cycle sustainability, by tabling, in the first quarter of 2023, ecodesign and energy labelling requirements for solar PVs, and by revising existing requirements for heat pumps.
support efforts from Member States to pool their public resources via potential Important Projects of Common European Interest (IPCEI) focused on breakthrough technologies and innovation along the solar and wind energy and heat pumps value chains.
10 million tonnes of .... Read more on PREMIUM version....

What is Europe's progress towards the 2030 and 2050 goals?

Europe has seen a continuous evolution of the spectrum of primary energy sources, with a progressive replacement of coal with other fossil sources and a part of these replaced by renewable sources.

It is not always a linear trend, because in the absence of public policies, the energy transition is due to market conditions, or to the initiative of pressure groups.