Energy Transition

EGEC, the voice of the European geothermal industry, calls on the European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen to create a European internal market for heat in an open letter published today on EGEC’s website.

The European Commission announced a ‘Renovation Wave’ to work alongside Member States in delivering energy efficiency improvements in public and private buildings. This is a start. But it is still a long way from what is required. EGEC Geothermal proposes three simple steps to institutionalise ownership, management and delivery of the systematic removal of fossil fuels in all types of buildings so that the sector is compatible with the Paris Agreement long before 2050.

The European Union is looking to engage a deep decarbonisation of the economy, which obliges looking at synergies between sectors to make the best out of the renewable energy installed. The geothermal sector stands at the crossroad of such smart energy systems, and EGEC is putting forward proposals on what should be done for this process to be implemented successfully.

The European Commission did a public consultation about its planned Climate Law. The Climate Law is one of the main political committment of the President of the European Commission for the EU to deliver on the compliance of the Paris Agreement.

As part of the Decarbheat initiative, which gathers several heating and cooling industry associations with the objective to advocate for European policies that are in line with the decarbonisation of the heating and cooling sector, EGEC co-signed a press release on the topic of the European Green Deal.

The European renewable industries welcome the decision by President Elect of the Commission von der Leyen to enshrine the objective of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 into EU law.

The European Investment Bank is the largest public development bank, providing financing to a wide array of projects, notably in the energy sector. Yesterday, the EIB reached an agreement that it would stop providing funding to fossil fuel projects from 2022 owards.

The European Investment Bank is currently in the process of drafting its updated energy lending policy. As the European Union is progressing towards decarbonisation, and the 2050 horizon is nearing quickly, EGEC joined other industry associations and think tanks to call for the EIB to promptly stop funding fossil fuel projects.

Sustainable finance is an increasingly important topic in European policy making. A proposed regulation by the European Commission on this topic will have a major impact on the private financial sector, and its relationship with geothermal and other renewable energy investments.

One of the key issues of the current debate on the next European Commission regards the priorities that should shape its action over the next five years, the matter of ambition for the energy transition is at the foreground.