VGB POWERTECH 11 (2019)

VGB PowerTech 11 l 2019
Editorial
The Green Deal of the new EU Commission
A further great challenge for power generation
Ladies and Gentlemen,
On 11 December 2019, the
European Commission presented
the “European Green
Deal “*, a roadmap to make
the Community economy
sustainable. The challenges
of climate and environmental
protection are to be shaped
as opportunities for all policy
areas and the transition is
to be fair and shaped jointly
with all those involved. EU
President Ursula von der Leyen
accompanied the publication
with the words: “The European Green Deal is our new
growth strategy – for growth that gives us more back than it
takes away ...”. EU Vice-President Frans Timmermanns noticed:
“We are in a climate and environmental emergency.
The European Green Deal is an opportunity to improve the
health and well-being of our people by transforming our economic
model....”.
The Green Deal presented includes a roadmap with measures
to promote the efficient use of resources. The future economy
is to be transformed into a clean and circular-oriented system,
climate change is to be halted, biodiversity preserved
and pollution reduced. It is also essential that the roadmap
and subsequent measures cover all economic sectors, namely
transport, energy, agriculture and buildings, as well as the
steel, cement, information and telecommunications sectors,
the textile and chemical industries.
Key points concerning the energy/electricity sector in the 24-
page document can be summarised as follows:
––
Timeline
The Commission will propose a European climate
law in March 2020 to incorporate the climate neutrality
target for 2050 into Community legislation.
By summer 2020, the EU will present an impact assessment
to revise the greenhouse gas reduction target for 2030 (50
to 55 %).
––
EU climate target and emissions trading system
The Commission will propose a revision of the EU Energy
Tax Directive. It will focus on environmental aspects and
allow the European Parliament and the Council to adopt
proposals in this area by qualified majority rather than unanimity
under the ordinary legislative procedure.
––
National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs)
Member States will present their revised energy and climate
plans by the end of 2019. The Commission will assess
the objectives of the plans and the need for additional
measures if the level of the objectives is insufficient. This
will feed into the process of increasing the climate targets
for 2030, for which the Commission will review the relevant
legislation by June 2021 and revise it if necessary.
––
Energy efficiency and smart market integration
Priority will be given to energy efficiency. The European energy
market should be fully integrated, networked and digitised,
while maintaining technological neutrality. Decarbonised
gases are to be increasingly used in the gas sector.
––
Transport
Achieving climate neutrality requires a 90% reduction in
transport emissions by 2050. In 2020, the Commission
will adopt a strategy for sustainable and intelligent mobility
that meets this challenge and addresses all sources of
emissions. The development of electromobility, including
the necessary infrastructure, will be important.
––
Financing and innovation
The Commission proposes a target of 25% of the EU budget
for climate action and will present a European Sustainable
Investment Plan to mobilise up to €1,000 billion over the
next 10 years. Innovations for climate action under Horizon
Europe will account for 35% of the budget.
Following the “World Energy Outlook” with its scenarios for
global energy supply summarised and commented on here in
the last editorial, the EU Commission is currently positioning
itself even more ambitiously for the EU states on climate
and environmental issues as well as energy supply. From the
roadmap it can be generally seen that from earlier considerations
on climate and environmental issues and a fixation
solely on the energy sector, often only electricity generation,
this is seen as a comprehensive social challenge. For the implementation
of the goals, it remains the case that the technological
component will remain the decisive factor in the
implementation. Whether with higher efficiency and better
environmental protection of existing technologies or even
completely new technologies is not yet answered. There is
unlikely to be one solution. Many individual solutions as a
whole are more likely and technology neutrality in development
and application as well as respect for and consideration
of aspects of energy supply security and social components
should not give way to daily guiding principles.
Dipl.-Ing. Christopher Weßelmann
Editor in Chief, VGB PowerTech
Essen, Germany
* The European Green Deal: https://ec.europa.eu/info/sites/info/files/
european-green-deal-communication_en.pdf
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_6691
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