The European Commission does not intend to extend the scope of the Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001) (‘RED II’) to low-carbon fuels in the context of the forthcoming revision of RED II, assured EU Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson, on Wednesday 26 May, during an exchange on upcoming energy legislative proposals with members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).
“Low-carbon fuels will certainly play a role in the transitional phase but this issue can be better addressed outside the scope of the Renewable Energy Directive, potentially by the decarbonisation of gas and hydrogen package that we will adopt at the end of this year” (in principle in November), said Ms Simson in response to concerns expressed by MEPs Ville Niinistö (Greens/EFA, Finland) and Nicolás González Casares (S&D, Spain).
And the Commissioner added, “It is my view that the focus of the directive should be on promoting renewable fuels”.
While the current directive sets a binding target of at least 32% of renewable energy in the EU’s energy mix by 2030, this ambition needs to be raised to between 38% and 40% in order for the Union to meet its new 2030 climate target (see EUROPE 12703/1, 12562/2).
To achieve this new target, the revision of RED II will aim to encourage renewable energy in the heating and cooling, industry (a sector not explicitly covered by the current RED II Directive) and transport sectors.
“We are looking at setting an indicative target for renewables in this sector”, Ms Simson said, noting that the Commission would promote labelling of industrial products using renewable energy.
Another element of the review highlighted by the Commissioner is the establishment of rules for the classification of green hydrogen and a methodology for its certification for all uses beyond transport.
Energy efficiency
Turning to the revision of the EU Energy Efficiency Directive or ‘EED’ (2018/2002), one of the eleven other legislative proposals in the ‘Fit for 55’ package due on 14 July, Ms Simson appeared to rule out the possibility of setting binding national targets in addition to the collective EU energy efficiency target.
“Member States will have flexibility on how to contribute to this collective target in a non-binding way”, she said.
However, she added that the Commission plans to establish a “delivery gap mechanism” to encourage Member States to take corrective action if they fail to make the necessary progress.
Currently aiming for an energy efficiency improvement of at least 32.5%, the EU should raise this target to 36-37% for final energy consumption and between 39 and 41% for primary energy consumption, according to the Commission. However, the EU is already lagging behind in its targets for this area (see EUROPE 12582/18, 12562/2).
In order to close this gap, Ms Simson is considering extending the obligation of an annual renovation rate for public buildings to all public buildings.
The proposed revision of the EED will provide “an explicit legal basis” for the ‘energy efficiency first principle’, she also stressed.
TEN-E
In addition, the Commissioner mentioned November as a provisional date for the adoption of the fifth list of projects of common interest (PCIs), a list of cross-border energy projects considered essential under the EU Regulation (347/2013) on Trans-European Networks for Energy (TEN-E).
As EU co-legislators are currently considering the proposed revision of the TEN-E Regulation (see EUROPE 12727/4), the Estonian also expressed her wish that the basic elements of the Commission’s proposal “are kept”, mentioning the exclusion of fossil fuels. (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)