The European Commission opens the review of the renewables directive to public consultation

The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the revision of the renewable energy directive, which will remain open until 9 February. The aim is to gather comments on the extent to which and how this European directive should be reviewed for the preparation of a proposal in 2021.

The European Commission’s 2030 Climate Targets Plan, presented in September, seeks to raise the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction ambition by 2030 from 40% to a minimum of 55%. The presentation of this plan was accompanied by an assessment of the total impact, which indicates that renewable energy and energy efficiency will be crucial to achieve this new goal.

The assessment estimates that the share of energy from renewable sources by 2030 should reach 38% to 40%, and that the necessary gains in energy efficiency are 36% to 39% for final energy consumption, and 39% to 41% for primary energy consumption.

In this context of increasing climate ambition, it is necessary to update the directives on renewables and energy efficiency, in line with other European Green Deal initiatives presented by the EU: the Energy System Integration, Hydrogen and Offshore Renewable Energy strategies, as well as the ‘Renovation Wave’.

Two 12-week public consultations

For the revision of these European renewable energy and energy efficiency directives, the European Commission has opened two public consultations aimed at public authorities, companies, industrial and workers’ associations, consumer and environmental organisations, NGOs, consultancies, academies, experts and other stakeholders. Each 12-week consultation will remain open until February 9, 2021.

They feature a series of nearly 60 questions, most of them in the form of checkboxes (strongly agree/agree/disagree/strongly disagree) and with an option for additional comments. Initially, the consultations have been published in English and will be available in all EU languages by mid-December.

Source: Smart Grids Info