Activity Report 2012 - Eurelectric

WaTER poLICy:
a pRIoRITy FoR
EURopE anD
oUR sECToR
on 14 november, the European Commission published
a Blueprint to Safeguard Europe’s Water Resources,
the EU policy response to water-related challenges.
The EU had dedicated 2012 as a year of “focus on
water”, and with water issues of major concern to
the power sector, EURELECTRIC also made water one
of its priorities for the year.
The Blueprint builds on several existing EU measures,
including the assessment of the River Basin Management
Plans which governments adopted under the Water
Framework Directive, the review of EU action on water
scarcity and drought, the assessment of the vulnerability
of water resources to climate change and other manmade
pressures, and a ‘fitness check’ of freshwater
policy. Although the Blueprint does not propose any
new legislation, it does contain a list of proposals for
voluntary action.
In the run-up to the Blueprint, EURELECTRIC responded
to several public consultations, which we used to stress
our concerns about the consistency of the water and lowcarbon
agendas. We also contributed to the debate on
the effectiveness of current water pricing in improving
water efficiency, in particular to ensure that policymakers
distinguish between the power sector’s gross and net
water use. EURELECTRIC experts were moreover deeply
42 eurelectric activity report 2012
involved in activities related to water modelling and
water accounting, conducted under the Blueprint. Water
savings and water efficiency are becoming increasingly
important as water scarcity and droughts become more
frequent and severe in a changing climate.
To further raise the industry’s profile on water issues,
EURELECTRIC organised a public conference on 20
September and launched a dedicated water webpage
and a short key message paper on the same day. During
the event, EURELECTRIC experts explained how different
forms of electricity generation rely on water and how
the existing regulatory framework regulates the way
the power sector ‘uses’ water. They also expressed the
widespread concern that requirements driven solely by
water policy would not properly assess trade-offs with
other policy objectives, for instance the role of hydropower
in reaching the EU’s renewables targets or the impact of
different water-based cooling systems on power plant
efficiency and emissions.
EURELECTRIC experts will continue to give their input
into water-related developments, including the issues
that have been identified in the Blueprint for further
voluntary work in the coming years, through the Common
Implementation Strategy (CIS) structure set up to oversee
the implementation of the Water Framework Directive.