Ewa Krukowska and Alberto Nardelli, Bloomberg News

BRUSSELS/LONDON
EnergiesNet.com 05 12 2022

 The European Union’s executive arm is set to bolster renewables and energy savings goals as part of a 195 billion-euro ($205 billion) plan to end its dependency on Russian fossil fuels by 2027.

The European Commission will propose raising its clean energy target for 2030 to 45% from the current 40% when it puts forward a package to implement its RePowerEU strategy on May 18, according to people familiar with the matter. It will also boost its energy-efficiency goal, requiring member states to reduce energy consumption by at least 13% from projections made in 2020 versus the current 9%. 

The EU wants to combine faster deployment of renewables, greater energy savings, diversification of supplies from international partners and new tools to accelerate investment in a bid to replace coal, oil and natural gas from Russia following the country’s invasion of Ukraine. The strategy, which will bolster a Green Deal push for bigger emissions cuts by 2030, can save the bloc 80 billion euros on gas, 12 billion euros on oil and 1.7 billion euros on coal imports a year, the people said.

It is poised to include a target of 10 million tons of domestic renewable hydrogen production and 10 million tons of renewable hydrogen imports by 2030. The objective for biomethane production will be 35 billion tons.

The package may still change before adoption. The commission has a policy of not commenting on draft documents.

To help unlock investment, the commission wants to bring forward financing from the Innovation Fund, which is based on revenues from sales of carbon permits in the EU Emissions Trading System. That will be done in a call for projects this autumn, with the available funding set to double. 

bloomberg.com 05 11 2022