On Wednesday 8 December, the Slovenian Presidency of the Council of the European Union submitted to the Member States a first draft compromise on the revision of the EU Renewable Energy Directive (2018/2001) (‘RED II’).
Presented by the European Commission on 14 July as part of the ‘Fit for 55 package’, the proposal to revise the ‘RED II’ directive sets the target of achieving “at least 40%” of energy from renewable sources in the EU’s gross final energy consumption by 2030 (see EUROPE 12762/8).
The draft also includes indicative and binding sectoral targets for industry, buildings, transport and heating.
While the Slovenian document does not seem to question the general objective, the sectoral objectives, expressed as a percentage, appear in square brackets. It is therefore to be expected that the Presidency will propose changes in the future.
Many Member States criticised the European Commission’s proposed targets as being too ambitious on Thursday 2 December at a meeting of the EU27 energy ministers (see EUROPE 12846/5).
The following are shown in square brackets: - the indicative target of at least 49% of renewable energy for buildings in the EU’s final energy consumption by 2030; - the indicative target for each Member State to increase the share of renewable energy in the energy mix for industry by at least 1.1% as an annual average by 2030; - the target that the share of renewable energy from hydrogen used in industry should be 50% by 2030 in each Member State.
For transport, the European Commission’s proposal would oblige fuel suppliers to ensure that the amount of renewable fuel and electricity supplied to this sector results in a reduction in greenhouse gas intensity of at least 13% by 2030. This number is also included in the draft compromise in square brackets.
The same applies to the share of advanced biofuels and biogas in the energy supplied to the transport sector by 2030 and to the share of renewable fuels of non-biological origin. The European Commission proposes to set these at 2.2 and 2.6% respectively.
For the heating and cooling sector, the European Commission wants to require each Member State to increase the share of renewable energy in this sector by at least 1.1% as an annual average calculated for the periods 2021 to 2025 and 2026 to 2030, with the share in 2020 as the reference point.
While this target remains unchanged in the Slovenian draft compromise, the related target of increasing this share by 1.5% for Member States using recovered waste heat and cooling appears in square brackets.
It should be noted that the Slovenian document states that “unchanged parts of the text are not necessarily acceptable or accepted as they currently stand”. According to the Presidency, they simply “should not be addressed at this stage”.
See the draft compromise: https://bit.ly/3GwHx70 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)