MEPs must hold firm on higher renewable energy target

Energy transition

Today, the European Parliament, Council and Commission negotiated the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive for the period after 2020. The proposal by the Council to set a 30-31% or 32-33% renewable energy target for 2030, which will be assessed by MEPs over the next week, falls well short of what is needed to implement the Paris Agreement.

In reaction to the outcome of the trialogue, Jean-François Fauconnier, Renewables Policy Coordinator at Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:

“To be on a Paris-compatible pathway, we need to increase the renewable energy target to at least 45% by 2030. This would also reflect the spectacular decrease of the renewable energy costs over the past few years. The proposal by the Council to set the overall EU renewable energy target at 30-31% or 32-33% by 2030 is certainly not a good compromise.”

“As the European Parliament is due to assess the Council’s proposal next week, we urge MEPs to hold firm both on the overall target and on key issues that will make or break the actual development of renewable energy in the next decades.”*

ENDS

Contact:

Nicolas Derobert, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, nicolas@caneurope.org, +32 483 62 18 88

Note to editors:

* Key issues include the treatment of renewable energy self-consumption, and the need to strengthen safeguards for the use of renewables in the transport and in the heating and cooling sectors.

 

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s largest coalition working on climate and energy issues. With over 150 member organisations in more than 30 European countries – representing over 44 million citizens – CAN Europe works to prevent dangerous climate change and promote sustainable climate and energy policy in Europe.

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