EN Official Journal of the European Union C 325/12

Opinion of the Committee of the Regions on ‘Promotion of renewable energy’

(2008/C 325/03)

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

— wishes to ensure support schemes are accessible to renewable producers at all scales, including small installations and believes that, for consistency, support for renewable energy should be accompanied by the phasing out of subsidies for the production and use of fossil fuels (with the exception of possible support for cogeneration plans used to provide district heating) and for the production and use of nuclear energy. An exception shall also be granted to cases where carbon capture and storage is applied to reduce the carbon dioxide quantities emitted by fossil fuel use;

— recommends ensuring maximum coordination between the principal European legislative acts in these areas, specifically the Directive on the energy performance of buildings, the Directive on energy efficiency and energy services, the third package liberalising energy and the various components of the ‘energy-climate’ package, including the Directive on renewable energy;

— urges the Commission to amend Article 4 to require the involvement of Local and Regional Authorities in the formulation of national action plans, and to take this factor duly into consideration when evaluating the national action plans;

— points out that setting a 10 % target for increased use of biofuels in transport will have the intended, positive outcome only if biofuels are produced from commodities obtained in a way that does not distort the natural balance of the environment, food supply or the economic balance of the market, or social balance.

Rapporteur : Paula BAKER (UK/ALDE), Member of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council

Reference document

Proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources

COM(2008) 19 final

I. POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS

THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

General

1. welcomes the Renewable Energy Directive, because it believes that renewable energy generation can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the security of energy supply, promote technology development, increase employment opportunities and contribute to regional development;

2. emphasises that, if the goals of the directive are to be achieved, it is imperative that a strategic alliance of regional and local authorities be established to ensure the bottom-up development of renewable energy;

3. urges a legislative framework that provides long term stability for investment decisions so that innovative renewable projects, using the wide range of technologies now available, can become competitive against conventional technologies;

4. welcomes the adoption of binding objectives for renewable energy. However, it points out that in order to ensure that the final objectives are effectively pursued without delay and achieved, the intermediary objectives as identified in Part B of Annex 1 to the draft directive must also be binding; and calls for local and regional authorities to be involved in discussions with Member States in the preparation of national Action Plans to ensure that there is adequate oversight of the intermediary objectives and that the implementing instruments to be adopted are defined at local level;

5. fully supports the Commission proposal that Member States develop electricity grid infrastructure to accommodate electricity produced from renewable sources and to give it priority access to the grid, but stresses access must be at a fair and competitive price, whether this is achieved by Feed-In-Tariff or otherwise;

6. similarly stresses the importance of grid infrastructure for gas, and heating from renewable sources and residual heat and to give these types of energy reasonable access to their relevant grid infrastructures;

7. believes that grid suppliers should make, and bear the costs of, reasonable adjustments to give access to renewable energy sources, these costs should not be spread across all energy consumers;

8. Supports the European Commission's initiative of urging national, regional and local authorities to apply policies promoting low energy and passive buildings. Although these policies must be dealt with separately, they are necessary, of the utmost importance and relevant as regards meeting the objectives of the renewable energy directive. The Committee recommends that the provisions on this subject included in the draft Directive on renewable energy be duly taken into consideration during the forthcoming adjustment of the Directive on the energy performance of buildings. Generally, it recommends ensuring maximum coordination between the principal European legislative acts in these areas, specifically the Directive on the energy performance of buildings, the Directive on energy efficiency and energy services, the third package liberalising energy and the various components of the ‘energy-climate’ package, including the Directive on renewable energy. Particularly in view of achieving binding national targets, attention must focus on national implementation of the Directive on Renewable Energy;

Role of Local and Regional Authorities

9. considers that Local and Regional Authorities have experience and established competence to influence energy infrastructure and policies within their regions. Many European regions are already demonstrating a political commitment to promoting renewable energy in their regions; they have set concrete goals in this sphere and are pursuing them actively. They already influence energy infrastructure and policies by their actions in spatial planning, regional development, influencing the actions of individual citizens, and in many cases have fostered innovative applications of renewable energy (solar, ground source, biomass, hydroelectric power and wind) in relation to buildings and transport and other areas;

10. notes that the shift from non-renewable to renewable energy sources implies an increase in relatively small scale, local, energy production, which will also reduce long distance electricity transmission losses and will involve and impact upon the activities of all Local and Regional Authorities;

11. recognises that activities undertaken by local and regional authorities through which they may help achieve the goals of the directive include: — spatial planning (through clear planning and development specifications as both a regulator and enabler); — their ownership and management of public land and property (including street lighting, housing, transport, as well as public buildings and offices and captive fleets); — provision of sustainable transport services and establishment of alternative means of transport (such as hire of electric cars and bicycles); — provision of heating and cooling networks for private housing or large public buildings (swimming pools, schools, town or regional halls, etc.); — regional development; — measures to assist renewable energy companies including grants and access to finance; — provision of grants and facilitating access to finance to make renewable energy accessible to individual households, public organisations and companies; — communication with the citizen; — provision of information and training (to citizens, to builders, equipment installers and repairers, to SMEs on support schemes); — promoting energy research, development and technological innovation, especially as far as energy saving, efficiency and renewable energy are concerned;

12. urges the Commission to resist pressure to require Member States to set up centralised, single, administrative bodies dealing with applications and assistance for new renewable installations;

13. cautions against ‘surplus energy’ standards being applied retrospectively to public buildings;

14. In the light of the experience with NEEAPs, also calls on the Commission to allocate the necessary resources (including human resources) and to take the requisite steps (including legal action and financial sanctions) to ensure that the Member States submit high-quality National Action Plans for Renewables (NAPR) by the set deadlines, thus enabling the directive's objectives to be met;

15. points out that, additionally, Local and Regional Authorities control large budgets for public purchasing and procurement of energy consuming products and services; stresses that in the formative phases of a shift to a much more dominant renewable energy Europe, the significant role of Local and Regional Authorities in specifying, innovating and negotiating with the renewable energy sectors should be strengthened;

16. recognises that activities by Local and Regional Authorities to reduce the total demand for energy, by actions to improve energy efficiency, make an important contribution to achieving the aims of the Renewable Energy Directive;

National Action Plans

17. believes that, many of the actions (see for example Article 12) which will be included in the NAP will fall to Local and Regional Authorities to implement, Local and Regional Authorities have already undertaken significant action, and this experience should be utilised fully in the production, implementation and monitoring of NAPs;

18. therefore urges the Commission to amend Article 4 to require the involvement of Local and Regional Authorities in the formulation of national action plans, and to take this factor duly into consideration when evaluating the national action plans;

19. recalling the experience of the national energy efficiency action plans (NEEAPs), it calls on the Commission to publish, in good time, guidelines for preparing NAPs, including a model. The involvement of local and regional authorities in drafting the NAPs will be clearly identified as a major part of the process of preparing NAPs in any model, guide or other form of recommendation published by the European Commission on the subject of NAPs;

Support Measures

20. urges the Commission to take steps to encourage take up of existing support schemes for renewable energy such as Structural Funds, access to EIB loans, the Intelligent Energy for Europe scheme under the Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (CIP), the various schemes and initiatives under the 7th Framework programme for Research, and the Commission's plans set down in its Communication on the Strategic Energy Technology Plan COM (2007) 723 final;

21. wishes to ensure support schemes are accessible to renewable producers at all scales, including small installations and believes that, for consistency, support for renewable energy should be accompanied by the phasing out of subsidies for the production and use of fossil fuels (with the exception of possible support for cogeneration plans used to provide district heating).and for the production and use of nuclear energy. An exception shall also be granted to cases where carbon capture and storage is applied to reduce the carbon dioxide quantities emitted by fossil fuel use;

22. wishes the Commission to recognise the contribution of, and ensure that sufficient support is made available to encourage research and development to harness clean, renewable maritime energies such as from wind, waves, tide and ocean currents. Points out that national and regional aid programmes, which offer solutions tailored to national, regional and local situations, have shown that they are capable of successfully promoting renewable energy. Therefore, although additional support from the European level continues to be desirable, national and regional aid programmes must remain the principal tools for promoting this form of energy. Any European-level standardisation of the terms and conditions of aid programmes is to be avoided;

Guarantees of Origin

23. notes that the Commission proposal for EU wide Guarantees of Origin to validate electricity, heating and cooling from renewable sources conforms to the Committee of the Regions Opinion on Limiting global climate change (1) which called for a green energy certificate to be introduced;

24. believes that the use of Guarantees of Origin also for trading and accounting is overcomplicated and suggests the Commission reconsiders and clarifies it, with a view to better guaranteeing the transparency and legal certainty of the system. It also suggests that at the same time, the Commission ensures that the system for trading in and marketing Guarantees of Origin does not jeopardise the implementation and efficiency of national or regional aid programmes, as well as considering a separate certificate for voluntary trading;

25. considers that the contribution made by microgeneration must be taken into account in order that this element of each Member States' overall energy package is properly recognised and supported;

Information and Training

26. notes that energy generation, distribution and use is changing rapidly and believes the rate of change will increase in coming years; therefore there must be widespread dissemination of information and training so that producers, installers and consumers of energy have appropriate understanding of new technologies allowing changes to take place efficiently and equitably;

27. supports the Commission proposal that Member States ensure that appropriate information, guidance and accreditation schemes are established;

28. stresses that Local and Regional Authorities have an important role in education and training, and are increasingly consulted by their citizens to improve the quality of information which is currently on offer; they will also be directly involved in implementing guidance on planning controls and standards for new buildings, therefore urges that Local and Regional Authorities are fully involved in the development and implementation of information, awareness, guidance, education and training schemes;

Biofuels

29. notes that Local and Regional Authorities have promoted biofuel use by, for example, collecting used cooking oils to produce bio-diesel for municipal vehicles, and the generation of biogas from sewage and other bio wastes also for use in municipal vehicles and the generation of wood pellet supplies, primarily for heat but also in conjunction with CHP schemes, from locally managed woodlands, and waste wood. Initiatives in various European regions to establish ‘biofuel networks’ must also be supported. These networks coordinate the production and consumption of biofuels at regional level. Provided that biofuels are sustainably produced, taking into account all economic, environmental and social aspects, such networks can contribute to the development of regional economies;

30. Believes that the 10 % target for renewable energy in transport is best met by increased use of electric vehicles powered by renewably generated electricity;

31. maintains that biofuels produced from wastes, by-products and residues have two climate change benefits as they reduce transport emissions and they remove materials from the waste stream, and thus represent good management of limited resources, of which biomass is an example. Nor do biofuels produced in this way compete with food production;

32. points out that increased use of biofuels in transport will have the intended, positive outcome only if biofuels are produced from commodities obtained in a way that does not distort the natural balance of the environment, food supply or the economic balance of the market, or social balance;

33. notes that emissions of air pollutants that are damaging to human health, from biofuel use in transport vary depending on the source. Biofuels therefore have the potential to contribute to an improvement or a deterioration in air quality, which local government has a key role in managing;

34. urges, therefore, that comprehensive research is undertaken on the tail-pipe emissions of different biofuels and that air quality impacts are considered alongside sustainability assessment, in a holistic manner;

35. recommends that NAPs (national action plans), which local and regional authorities will be involved in preparing, should include detailed provisions on the commodities from which biofuels will be produced. NAPs should take account of the specific nature of the natural resources and agricultural potential of each Member State;

36. urges that biofuels offering significant and quantified savings in greenhouse gas emissions are supported;

37. understands that cellulosic biomass (2) and algae can be harvested with less interference to the food economy and less strain on land resources; as long as this is compatible with other marine activities; although production methods are still under development, green house gas savings of up to 90 % are claimed (3). Furthermore, vehicle fuels can be produced from waste by generating biogas through anaerobic digestion, with a corresponding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions;

38. calls on the European Commission to develop further the environmental sustainability criteria for biofuels laid down in Article 15 of the draft directive. These criteria should, inter alia, provide a solution to the following questions, crucial to the general sustainability of biofuels: — the question of inputs (intensive practices involving synthetic fertilisers and pesticides); — the question of water saving in cultivation methods; — the use of land which could be utilised for food crops. Furthermore, following the examples of the above mentioned regional networks, it calls on the Commission to take into account the potential of regional production/consumption chains;

39. urges rigorous assessment of biofuel sustainability in step with technological change and amendment of the minimum GHG saving as technology develops;

40. believes that sustainability criteria need to be applied to EU produced and non-EU produced biofuels to give the public confidence in their purchasing decisions and in any schemes operated by their local authority;

41. biofuels must be produced sustainably and in a way which minimises the climate impact. Under no circumstances should permanently wooded areas be cleared in order to make way for energy crops which, de facto, fix smaller quantities of carbon dioxide;

II. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AMENDMENTS

Amendment 1

Article 3(3)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment 3. Each Member State shall ensure that the share of energy from renewable sources in transport in 2020 is at least 10 % of final consumption of energy in transport in that Member State. In calculating total energy consumed in transport for the purposes of the first subparagraph, petroleum products other than petrol and diesel shall not be taken into account. 3. Each Member State shall ensure that the share of energy from renewable sources in transport in 2020 is at least 10 % of final consumption of energy in transport in that Member State. This energy may be produced only from commodities obtained in a way that does not distort the natural balance of the environment or the economic balance of the market in individual Member States. In calculating total energy consumed in transport for the purposes of the first subparagraph, petroleum products other than petrol and diesel shall not be taken into account.

Reason

Because the production methods for biofuels offering high greenhouse gas savings are still in development and establishing a target at this point risks distorting the global market for food products.

Amendment 2

Article 4(1)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment 1 Each Member State shall adopt a national action plan. The national action plans shall set out Member States' targets for the shares of energy from renewable sources in transport, electricity and heating and cooling in 2020, and adequate measures to be taken to achieve these targets, including national policies to develop existing biomass resources and mobilise new biomass resources for different uses, and the measures to be taken to fulfil the requirements of Articles 12 to 17. 1. Each Member State shall adopt a national action plan on the basis of energy action plans, elaborated at local and regional level and coordinated with regional and land use policies; Member States shall actively consult and involve regional and local authorities, at an early stage, in the preparation of national action plans. The national action plans shall set out Member States' targets for the shares of energy from renewable sources in transport, electricity and heating and cooling in 2020, and adequate measures to be taken to achieve these targets, including the use of Green Public Procurement, through the introduction of ecological criteria encouraging the use of energy from renewable sources in the procurement of energy services by public authorities and the use of national policies to develop existing biomass resources and mobilise new biomass resources for different uses, and the measures to be taken to fulfil the requirements of Articles 12 to 17.

Reason

Since many of the actions included in the National Action Plans will fall to Local and Regional authorities to implement, it is essential that they get involved in drafting the National Action Plans.

As part of the ETAP strategy for the dissemination of environmental technologies, the 25 Member States have adopted National Action Plans for Green Public Procurement (Italy approved its plan via an interministerial decree of 11 April 2008). GPP should be used to introduce ecological criteria (regarding the use of renewable energy sources) in the public procurement of energy services.

The draft Directive as it stand only makes limited references to the positive role that Local and Regional Authorities can play (Articles 12.1.a, 12.3 and 12.7). While recognising that the Commission's reasoning is to prioritise the achievement of the goal without prejudicing the ways Member States might choose to achieve it, the above amendment can help to increase the visibility and respect the competences of subnational Local Government in it, and crucially to encourage national authorities to actively engage with them when designing and implementing their National Action Plans.

Amendment 3

Article 12(3)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment Member States shall require local and regional administrative bodies to consider the installation of equipment and systems for the use of heating, cooling and electricity from renewable sources and for district heating and cooling when planning, designing, building and refurbishing industrial or residential areas. Member States shall require local and regional administrative bodies to consider the installation of equipment and systems for the use of heating, cooling and electricity from renewable sources and for district heating and cooling when planning, designing, building and refurbishing industrial, commercial, office or residential areas.

Amendment 4

Article 13(1)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment 1. Member States shall ensure that information on support measures is made available to consumers, builders, installers, architects and suppliers of heating, cooling and electricity equipment and systems and of vehicles compatible with the use of high biofuel blends or pure biofuels. 1. Member States shall ensure that information on support measures, with involvement of local and regional authorities, is made available to consumers, builders, installers, architects and suppliers of heating, cooling and electricity equipment and systems and of vehicles compatible with the use of high biofuel blends or pure biofuels.

Reason

Local and regional authorities should play an important role in training and information activities for the dissemination of renewable energy sources, to ensure that the targets of the 20-20-20 programme are reached.

Amendment 5

Article 13(4)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment 4. Member States shall develop guidance for planners and architects so that they are able properly to consider the use of energy from renewable sources and of district heating and cooling when planning, designing, building and renovating industrial or residential areas. 4. Member States shall, with the involvement of local and regional authorities, develop guidance for planners and architects so that they are able properly to consider the use of energy from renewable sources and of district heating and cooling when planning, designing, building and renovating industrial or residential areas.

Reason

Local and regional authorities should play an important role in training and information activities for the dissemination of renewable energy sources, to ensure that the targets of the 20-20-20 programme are reached.

Amendment 6

Article 14(a)

Text proposed by the Commission CoR amendment Without prejudice to the maintenance and safety of grids, Member States shall ensure that transmission system operators and distribution system operators in their territory guarantee that gas produced from renewable energy sources and residual heat are given priority access to their appropriate grids on reasonable conditions.

Reason

Gas (biogas) and heating from renewable sources should ultimately be given access to the relevant grids, exploiting residual heat from industrial processes, the burning of waste etc. is a very effective way of saving primary energy.

Brussels, 8 October 2008 The President of the Committee of the Regions Luc VAN DEN BRANDE

(1) CdR 110/2007 fin.

(2) Wood (such as willow, hybrid poplar, eucalyptus), tall perennial grasses (such as switchgrass and miscanthus, crop residues and municipal organic waste.

(3) National Geographic October 2007 and Engineering & Technology May 2008.