It is very clear that if the EU wants to make a fair contribution to the effort to limit temperature rise to 1.5°C, it will need to follow the recommendation of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres and aim for achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2040 rather than by 2050. This means the new EU 2040 target should become a net-zero target. It makes sense for the EU to set a very ambitious 2035 target of around 95% net GHG emission reductions at the same time.
Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung European Union and Environmental Action Germany (Deutsche Umwelthilfe) have convened a group of over 20 experts from academia, industry, civil society and policy makers to discuss and identify several important policy gaps in the EU’s approach to renewable energy, which should be addressed to ensure that the EU’s new climate and industry agenda becomes as effective and globally equitable as it can be.
The European Commission has proposed a reform in the electricity market design. Both the technical implementation of the reform and the notion that marginal pricing is to blame are contested, and have significant implications with regard to investments in renewable energy sources (RES). This factsheet summarizes the key changes proposed in the reform, whilst focusing on their effects regarding the integration of RES into the European energy system and the flexibility potential required to achieve this integration.
To meet the EU climate targets, policymakers need to support both the rapid deployment and manufacturing of cleantech, while also strengthening the EU’s research and innovation ecosystem. Next to this, they need to consider a range of questions. How will their policy response deliver quality jobs for citizens? How will it bolster the EU’s resilience vis-à-vis Russia or China? And finally, how will it support the EU’s economic competitiveness in an era when large economies have entered a cleantech race? This factsheet reviews existing EU funding initiatives to accomplish this endeavour.
In several countries in the EU, as well as in the Brussels corridors of the European Union institutions, a vehement debate is currently taking place regarding the demand for more nuclear power. Only five years ago, this attention hardly existed. This study looks at the sudden surge in attention for nuclear energy and tries to understand the role of different actors on the side of the nuclear lobby. It investigates the case of the Netherlands, which turned from a de facto nuclear phase-out country to one where expansion of nuclear energy is currently under preparation, as well as the European Union, where a large minority of Member States have brought nuclear back to the table in many climate-related legislative debates.
