Brussels lowers renewable production target to 27%

more renewable energy

The Council of the European Union ratified a few days ago its goal of reaching at least 27% renewable energy in the final consumption in 2030, compared to the 35% defended by the European Parliament and even the Commission itself.

The decision is surprising, just one week later that some of the main European leaders, among which we can highlight, Mariano Rajoy or the French president, Emmanuel Macron, defended in Paris a greater presence of clean energies at the One Planet Summit meeting.

Renewable energy challenge

The Council has established important mechanisms for the control and coordination of the policies of the Member States, within the framework of the governance of the Energy Union, with a view to ensure the fulfillment of said objective.

Spain positively valued the regulatory framework that has been proposed in these general guidelines, which has progressed documents in simplifying the administrative transactions for renewable installations, new commitments in the form of the penetration of renewables in transport and the setting of objective criteria for evaluating the progress of the different Member States.

renewable auction

The Ministry of Energy explained that it shares the Council's guidance, which clearly reflects that there should be no discrimination or subsidies between consumers and that they must bear the costs of the system in an equitable way, regardless of whether they consume themselves or not.

States must mark in their National Energy and Climate Plans a strategy developed in cooperation with neighboring States to progress in interconnections and reach the 2030% target by 15.

Every two years a Commission will evaluate the progress of the different countries to achieve the interconnection objectives, which will be an element essential for Spain and that, if insufficient progress is detected, the Commission and the States must cooperate to reach solutions. Likewise, interconnections have been included when assessing the costs assumed by countries, recognizing that achieving an interconnection level of 15% is key, as required by the Spanish Government.

Renewable targets

The EU's renewable energy targets are part of a set of regulations to apply the Paris Agreement against climate change, and which seek to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% in 2030 relative to at 1990 levels. The Paris Agreement makes it possible to contain the increase in temperatures by 2º C compared to pre-industrial times.

Spain does not reduce CO2 emissions

The other Trojan horse of the union were the subsidies that thermal plants may receive, to compensate their owners for acting as support in absence of other energy sources (when the wind stops or there is no sun…) and because they are available to meet a peak in electricity demand.

CO2

Capacity payments, a euphemism that hides the subsidies that these energy sources receive (coal, gas ...), have been one of the workhorses of social organizations that see these aid to the fossil fuels contrary to the mitigation objectives of climate change due to its high emissions.

Commissioner Arias Cañete (CE) proposed that existing plants cannot receive these payments if they emit more than 550 grams of CO2per kilowatt hour as of 2020. However, ministers only accept that these payments are reduce starting in 2025, and are eliminated 5 years later.

CO2

Likewise, the European Commission had proposed that the new thermal plants could not receive these aid when they emitted more than 550 grams of CO2/ kWh starting in 2020. However, the Council has been lenient and has proposed that this clock only start in 2025. France, Denmark, Portugal and the Netherlands supported the toughest possible targets against coal.

Biofuels

The energy ministers also proposed that by 2030 14% of transport fuel be biofuels. In fact, this is a significant boost to biofuels of the first generation (palm oil, soybeans ...), highly questioned when entering into competition with the provision of food. For this reason, the Commission proposed limiting them to a 3,8% quota by 2030. Environmental groups believed that the average could harm the deployment of the electric car.

biofuel

Greenpeace and SEO / BirdLife have denounced the "blockade towards the energy transition" of Minister Álvaro Nadal in the Council, and they judge that he is "delegitimized to lead the law of Climate Change”. “The Paris agreement is on the way to being a pact for the gallery.

Biofuel energy


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