6.4.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
C 152/129
— granting funding through municipalities, to avoid citizens being held captive by industry players.
Lifting bureaucratic barriers and ensuring that funding reaches the intended public (such as youth-led grassroots and youth-led local organisations), clarifying the obligations that may fall to the prosumer in the future, are key.
Here, legal stability must take precedence, as access to financial aid and know-how must be guaranteed for consumers to encourage them to take the plunge and become prosumers.
The EESC believes that once the legislative instrument under discussion is revised, it should not be renewed before 2030, to ensure the legal stability needed by all of the sector’s stakeholders, in the broad sense of the word, as already stated in point 3.1 above.
3.3.
While it is right to step up efforts to ensure the dynamic use of offshore wind, as set out in the offshore strategy, onshore wind and photovoltaics should be given a much greater role in our future European energy system.
The lack of a comprehensive approach raises questions for the EESC, which calls on the Commission to adopt a regional decentralisation policy strategy.
Prosumerism cannot thrive without support from the regional and local level, which has not only the technical and financial means, but also knowledge of an area’s specific features, thus making considerable time savings possible.
This level’s proximity to the citizens and to the actors on the ground justifies it being granted further powers to achieve the objectives set out in the Directive.
Lastly, this strategy should be supported by a study on the management of the critical resources and materials (extraction, recycling, etc.) needed for the manufacture and smooth operation of renewable energies.
Dependence on fossil fuels must not become a dependence on critical materials.
b) Making better use of synergies 3.4.
As the last recast was carried out so recently, the new provisions adopted have not yet been able to take full effect.
The EESC therefore believes that this revision should serve two purposes.
3.5.
As things stand, according to the modelling contained in the EU 2020 baseline scenario, the Union should exceed the current target of 32 % renewable energy consumption by just over 1 %.
Firstly, the revision should raise current targets, while at the same time including new targets to boost the mainstreaming of renewables by at least 7 % across the continent.
3.6.
Secondly, the scope of the revisions carried out as part of the ‘Fit for 55’ package must, on the one hand, be an opportunity to strengthen the existing synergies between these regulations and the Directive.
On the other, this approach should also apply to the new tools proposed by the European Commission, such as the Social Climate Fund or the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
Thus, the benefits of implementing the directive will only be able to achieve their full potential if the use of renewable energy sources goes hand in hand with establishing carbon accounting for part of the imported CO2.
Introducing the carbon mechanism at borders regarding certain sectors should be an opportunity to provide a level playing field, which should be addressed at European level.
Replacing the target for renewable energy of at least 14 % in final energy consumption by the transport sector with a binding target of 13 % greenhouse gas intensity by 2030, as set out in Article 25, is an example of synergies being properly exploited.
Doing so will lead to greater consistency with the revision of the Emissions Trading Scheme and the rules on CO2 standards.
Nevertheless, in accordance with the Commission’s strategy for energy system integration (4), electrification of the transport sector should be the priority whenever it is economically and technologically possible.
Lastly, this proposal for a revision also comes ahead of the revision of the Energy Performance of Buildings Directive and must serve as an opportunity to show great ambition when presenting its follow-up to the ‘Fit for 55’ package, scheduled for 14 December 2021.
c) The economic recovery must enable renewable energies to flourish 3.7.
While the demand for electricity has almost returned to its pre-crisis level, the economic recovery has led to a boom in renewables-based generation at the expense of fossil fuels (5).
In order to turn this into a real trend for the future, a level playing field between energy production sources must be established.
Firstly, this means stopping subsidising fossil fuels as quickly as possible; in 2018, these subsidies amounted to around EUR 50 billion for the whole of Europe (6) (with the understanding that an ‘indirect’ part of the subsidy is not reflected in the estimate).
(4) (5) (6)
COM (2020) 299 final.
Ember, European Electricity Review: H1-2021, (ember-climate.org).
European Commission, Annexes to the 2020 report on the State of the Energy Union pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action.