The Commission has today adopted an assessment of the EU-wide impact of Member State National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) for 2021-2030. It comes in parallel with today’s Commission’s proposals for an ambitious Climate Target Plan to reduce EU greenhouse gas emissions by 55% by 2030, compared to 1990 levels. It also echoes the EU’s increased climate ambition announced in yesterday’s State of the Union speech by Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Kadri Simson, Commissioner for Energy, said:
The energy system will be at the heart of the green transition in Europe. The National Energy and Climate Plans Assessment that we have presented today show that our Member States are able to surpass our goals. Now we must go to the next level together and develop a more secure and resilient energy system, with more renewable energy generated in the EU.
Today’s report considers the cumulative impact of the different elements foreseen in the NECPs – namely for renewables, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reductions, the internal EU energy market, and research & innovation ambitions. Detailed assessment of each national plan will follow in October together with guidance on implementing the NECPs.
The assessment shows that the EU is already on track to surpass its current 2030 greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 40%. The Commission sees this as a springboard for raising our ambition for 2030, as outlined in the Climate Target Plan. For renewable energy, the combined commitment by Member States is estimated to be above the existing renewable energy target of at least 32%. As far as energy efficiency is concerned, although the ambition level is higher than in the draft NECPs, the cumulative impact of the different NECPs still falls short of the existing energy efficiency target of 32.5%.
Today’s assessment also comes on the day that has seen the publication of implementing rules for the new EU renewable energy financing mechanism.
Background
In order to meet the EU’s existing energy and climate targets for 2030, EU Member States were required to establish a 10-year integrated national energy and climate plan (NECP) for the period from 2021 to 2030. Introduced under the Regulation on the governance of the energy union and climate action (EU/2018/1999), the rules required the final NECP to be submitted to the Commission by the end of 2019. These final NECPs followed on from a Commission assessment and country specific recommendations about the draft NECPs that were published in July 2019.
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Details
- Publication date
- 17 September 2020
- Author
- Directorate-General for Energy
- Location
- Brussels