Danish minister Ida Auken, who will
chair environmental and energy talks among the 27 EU ministers for the
upcoming six months, is to present her “green priorities” today (19
December) in the Council.
Against the backdrop of stalled negotiations on binding energy
efficiency measures, she said her message will be: “No more business as
usual”.
The Danish still have the
Energy Efficiency Directive as a top
priority but they are less bullish on the timetable, an industry source
told EurActiv.
Directive stalled by funding stalemate
Energy efficiency should be the main focus of all governments, because it has a positive impact on fuel-fired industries.
“Energy efficiency has to follow its economic potential,” the
European Commission says in its 2050 roadmap, but this potential is
locked because of the lack of political will, an EU official told
EurActiv.
“It is too expensive” and member states cannot just impose much
higher energy bills on their consumers, the source said. “That would be
such an unpopular move, every politician in power is thinking short-term
– three, maybe four years”.
There is one way to top up consumers’ bills, however, and that is by
offering services. “If energy companies focused more on services, things
could improve,” according to an EU source. “But then, what if there is
no demand for the service? Consumers have other, more immediate
priorities.”
Talks on the efficiency directive are stalled because there is a lack
of agreement on how it will be funded. The MEP working on the proposal
in the European Parliament, Claude Turmes, said that unless there is a
way to fund it, "this directive is wishful thinking”.
Energy roadmap raises pressure
The Danish presidency might be too impatient to clinch a deal to wait
for member states to find a compromise on the efficiency directive.
The directive would be binding, so it is a “hard piece of legislation
that makes it more attractive to investors,” said Ulrich Bang, head of
international affairs for the Danish Energy Association.
Even if for now there is little chance the Council will take a common
position on the efficiency directive, the
Energy Roadmap 2050,
published on 15 December by the Commission, “will create the needed
investment framework for investors,” Bang said.
That is not to say that they are taking their eyes off the proposed
law, but that they will try to push talks through other means.
The Danish presidency will coordinate its efforts so that it works on
the Energy Efficiency Directive and the Energy Roadmap 2050 in
parallel, EurActiv understands from several officials.
The roadmap is a political deal and easier to agree on, since it is not binding for member states.
“But the roadmap is not seen as important as the Energy Efficiency
Directive, as it doesn’t make member states commit,” according to an EU
official.
The Danes will try to reach ambitious conclusions, said Jørgen Knud
Henningsen, senior advisor on energy and environment at the European
Policy Centre.
“I hope they will keep the focus on achieving results. There is a
tendency these days to do roadmaps, but these are not really policies,”
Henningsen said. “The Commission was not established to make think-tank
analyses, its role is to make proposals.”
It could be used, however, to push the piece of legislation that does
matter, in other words create a momentum for the implementation of the
efficiency directive, according to EU experts. “There is a chance that
the Danish presidency will reach conclusions on this roadmap,” Ulrich
Bang said.
“If you asked me a week ago, maybe I would have said that is
impossible, but this changed when EU leaders called at the last summit
for urgent agreement on these energy policies, ” Bang added.
“They will probably say they will have both as a priority and I think
they will start a proper discussion on the roadmap,” Henningsen said.
But that discussion does not exclude the Energy Efficiency Directive.
“The challenge is now for the Danish government to also think
long-term, not to focus on the current mandate. The opposition has to
agree to the long-term measures, too and I hope they will support them”
,he said.
The Danes could follow the model set by the Polish presidency, which
did not intend to reach a binding deal on energy, but instead achieved a
political agreement on the Energy Infrastructure Package, which had a
side-effect on the energy efficiency proposal.
Hidden in the details
Efficiency plays an important role in all seven scenarios of the
Energy Roadmap 2050 and the Energy Efficiency Directive is included in
the text of the roadmap, an EU source told EurActiv.
Primary energy demand is expected to drop in a range of 16% to 20% by
2030 and 32% to 41% by 2050 as compared to peaks in 2005-2006. “This
can only be achieved through energy savings and that puts the stakes
high on the
Energy Efficiency Directive debate,” said Samuel Flückiger,
of the European Climate Foundation.
Flückiger described the Energy Roadmap 2050 as a continuation of the
the EU's 2020 energy and climate change targets extended out further
into the future. It will serve as a platform for discussion for the
Energy Efficiency Directive. The latter will push for the implementation
of the first, he says. “If the directive can deliver action on the
ground, this increases the case for reaching the target set in the
Energy Roadmap 2050”.
But the roadmap can only be achieved if 10 conditions are met, the
first of which is “the swift adoption of the current proposal on energy
efficiency”.
Positions:
"It is disappointing that the Commission failed to fully
appreciate the importance of significant primary energy savings and the n
eed to push energy efficiency up on the EU's energy policy agenda," said
Britsh MEP Fiona Hall (Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe), energy spokesperson on the European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy Committee (ITRE).
"If European decision makers do not create clarity over the
medium-term and long term target during the Danish presidency, the
necessary investment framework for large scale and long term green
investments will not be in place. To do nothing is not an option. It is
just choosing an extension of a fossil fired energy system," said
Ulrich Bang, Director of European Affairs at the Danish Energy Association.
“We appreciate the Commission’s recognition that energy efficiency
is the top priority, but it is incomprehensible that none of the
Roadmap’s scenarios assume that the 20% energy savings target will be
achieved," said
Stefan Scheuer, Secretary General of the Coalition for Energy Savings. “The energy efficiency sign is on the wall but the direction is missing”, he added.
“Achieving the 20% energy savings target is completely feasible with
a strong Energy Efficiency Directive and the Commission’s forward
planning for 2050 should cultivate this," said
Erica Hope, Senior Policy officer on Energy Savings at Climate Action Network Europe, an NGO.
Jean-Yves Blanc, president of eu.bac, the
European Building Automation Controls Association,
said: "A European Commission Energy Roadmap 2050, highlighting the
vital importance of energy efficiency in buildings has been on the
eu.bac wish list for a long time.This is a significant achievement.
However, we regret that the European Commission did not take the
opportunity to go up even more, ensuring that the ambition levels match
those communicated in the-20-20-20 strategy."
John Harris, of smart metering company
Landis+Gyr said
: “The
shift to a more intelligent system, the smart grid, is indispensable to
meeting the 2020 goals as well as achieving the situation the
Commission would like to see in 2050. In all of the structural changes
needed for transformation to ade-carbonized energy supply by 2050, the
distribution grid and the intelligence in the network to and from the
point of consumption is crucial.
Commenting on the Roadmap,
Monica Frassoni, President of the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE), a grouping of business leaders, politicians and campaigners said:
“Not aiming to achieve the 20% energy savings target in the Roadmap
2050 scenarios sends an incoherent message to the European Parliament
and EU Member states about the Commission’s confidence in its proposal
for an
Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)."
Monique Goyens,
Director General of BEUC,
the European Consumer Organisation said: “The EU rightly says that
saving energy is a key driver in its energy strategy. Energy efficiency
is one of the most cost-effective ways for consumers to reduce their
consumption and lower their bills. But we need concrete measures so that
consumers can actually save energy. Such tools are clear bills to know
your consumption, advice on how to consume less energy, access to
affordable energy-efficient products and real incentives to change your
behaviour. Any grand strategy should not overlook these basic but vital
actions.
None of the scenarios in the Roadmap consider a high efficiency
future and yet, this is the scenario that is most desirable for
the EU as a whole, according to EuroACE.
Adrian Joyce, Secretary General of EuroACE said: “Tapping
the huge potential of energy efficiency and going well beyond
current EU targets is technically feasible and will, by reducing the
overall amount of energy consumed by our economy, leave us more
resilient to future primary energy supply fluctuations and would mean
that if the unit price of energy goes up, our energy bills will still
come down,” Joyce added.
According to
European Petroleum Industry Association EUROPIA,the
Roadmap correctly raises some major challenges and mentions
key enablers: "technology, much of which is not yet mature, will be the
key to cost effective emissions reductions from energy; that “energy
efficiency is a priority in all scenarios”, although
reducing EU absolute energy demand without constraining economic
activity will require significant breakthroughs in technology and
changes in behavior, regardless of the carbon content of that energy;
that financing the changes will be complex and challenging."
Croatian Center of Renewable Energy Sources (CCRES)
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