Who are the EU countries that do not respect the targets on renewables
France has not met the European targets on the share of renewables in total energy consumption. It is not the only one. The deepening of the Pais
Five states, led by the Netherlands, are buying clean energy allowances from other members to meet their 2020 goals.
A blow to France's green reputation: it is the only one of the 27 members of the European Union that has not done its homework on renewable energy. One way or another – writes El Pais – all EU countries have met their targets for the share of renewable energy in total energy consumption by 2020. However, according to final data released Wednesday by the statistical office Eurostat, the second largest economy in Europe, did not reach the 23% target. It is still a long way off – at 19.1% – despite the fact that Covid has made it easier to adapt and despite the facilities put on the table by the European Commission, which a few years ago opened the possibility for countries to exchange, for a fee, the so-called "statistical transfers" to adapt, a figure that five states, including the Netherlands, have finally had to resort to to achieve their goals. Overall, the EU comfortably met its 2020 target: 20% had to be met and 22% was met.
France's non-compliance could lead to a Commission investigation and possible sanction in the future. But France has decided not to resort to buying shares from other countries. And Eurostat's figures are a dent in France's environmental credibility, which has been questioned by many environmental groups after the country strongly supported the inclusion of nuclear energy in the so-called green taxonomy, a classification developed by the Commission. European Union that distinguishes what is a green bond and what is not, and whose purpose is to steer the EU's finances towards the ecological transition. Currently, just over 70% of French electricity comes from nuclear power plants, making it the European country with the highest dependence on this technology, which does not emit greenhouse gases but produces waste that is complicated and expensive to manage.
In calculating the European 2020 targets for renewable energy, not only the electricity sector was taken into account, but also transport and industry, where the dominance of fossil fuels is still much greater. The EU as a whole was to achieve a 20% share of final energy consumption and reached 22%, according to data released Wednesday. Then, each country had its own goal to achieve so that the sum of all EU members would help reach that common 20%.
The national target was set taking into account the starting situation of each state more than ten years ago and its capabilities. France had set itself a 23% share of renewable energy, which it missed by four points. Spain, for example, was set at 20% and managed to reach 21.2%. Germany reached 19.3% (should have reached 18%). Sweden was the country that had the highest target, 49%, and reached 60%. Finland follows, which was supposed to reach 38% and remained at 43.8%.
The pandemic was one of the factors that ensured that the EU as a whole and several countries were able to comfortably achieve these 2020 targets for renewable energy. The advance of these clean technologies has continued to increase in the electricity sector despite the pandemic, while sectors with lower penetration of renewables – transport and industry – have significantly reduced their activity due to restrictions to contain the advance of the coronavirus.
Statistical transfers
To this favorable context was added an instrument that the European Commission launched a few years ago to facilitate the achievement of the objectives for countries: the so-called statistical transfers. This compensation tool allows a country that comfortably meets its goals – for example, Denmark – to sell part of its renewable energy on paper to another with difficulty – for example, the Netherlands. States are not obliged to disclose the prices at which they sell and buy this renewable energy, but sources familiar with these exchanges place them in a range of between 10 and 20 euros per MWh. According to data provided by Eurostat, in 2020 countries bought around 22.2 million MWh to meet the targets, which, taking an average price of 15 euros, would mean an outlay of more than 330 million.
Although transfers of this type had already taken place in previous years, the large volume of these operations was in 2020, the year that was taken as the reference year for reaching the European renewable targets. The state that had to rely the most on these statistical transfers to comply was the Netherlands, which would have acquired 60% of all transfers in 2020. Taking an average reference price of 15 euros, the Netherlands would have had to spend more. 200 million euros to reach their target of 14% renewable share.
Belgium, Ireland, Luxembourg and Slovenia are the other countries that have had to purchase such statistical transfers to comply. And the big sellers were Denmark, Sweden, Finland and Estonia. "In the future, Spain could also become a seller," says Pablo del Río, a researcher at the CSIC Institute of Public Assets and Policies and a renewable energy expert. The advance of solar and wind energy is growing Spain's renewable share at a good pace, something that could mean that in the coming years the country could sell these transfers to other countries that have more complicated the development of renewables, according to this. researcher.
By 2030, the European Commission has proposed to achieve a 40% share of renewable energy. Each EU member will have to adapt its energy and climate plans to achieve this goal. And, again, Brussels will try to push these tools as transfers. “From an EU point of view, it is a tool to achieve renewable targets and it can be another incentive for countries to install more renewables,” adds Pablo del Río.
Taxonomy
What is striking is that France has not finally decided to resort to this tool and risks possible recalls by the European institutions and a clouding of the image of the country that hosted the climate summit in 2015, where the agreement was signed. Paris.
The release of this data comes at a time of great tension within the EU over energy measures. On the last day of 2021, Brussels launched a proposal in which it includes nuclear energy (as requested by France) and also gas (as requested by Germany) among the sources of electricity generation touched by the green wand of taxonomy. The proposal, which is still in the consultation phase, has generated harsh criticism from environmentalists, who blame greenwashing, and has been criticized by several countries, such as Spain – which has made a strong commitment to renewables and believes that this initiative "would send the wrong signals for ecological transition across the EU" – and Austria, traditionally strongly opposed to nuclear energy.
The Commission's current initiative considers nuclear power plants with a building permit issued before 2045 and gas power plants in operation emitting less than 100 grams of carbon dioxide (CO₂) per kilowatt hour (kWh) or newly built power plants with a permit issued before 2030 that emit less than 270 grams of CO₂ per kWh, provided that the energy needs cannot be met by renewable sources and that the plant replaces a polluting plant, on a par with renewables.
After a consultation period that expires on 21 January, Brussels plans to present its final proposal "as soon as possible", but without a specific date, through a delegated act, according to a Commission spokesperson. This type of technical, non-legislative decision can go ahead even without the unanimity of the member states: it can only be vetoed if it is rejected by a qualified majority of the Council (55% of the countries with 65% of the population) or of the European Parliament.
(Extract from the press review of eprcomunicazione)
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/energia/chi-sono-i-paesi-ue-che-non-rispettano-gli-obiettivi-sulle-rinnovabili/ on Sun, 23 Jan 2022 07:30:45 +0000.