In the context of a debate after the voting session, MEPs gathered in Strasbourg on Tuesday, 13 September, appeared to have a rather favourable opinion of the amended draft report by Markus Pieper (EPP, German) on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (REDII) (2018/2001), which notably supports the proposal to raise the target for the share of renewable energy in the EU’s energy mix to 45% by 2030.
MEPs Nicolás González Casares (Spanish) and Christophe Grudler (French)—shadow rapporteurs for the S&D and Renew Europe groups (the two largest groups in the European Parliament after the EPP), respectively—both explicitly defended the new target, highlighting the need to deploy more renewable energy sources to reduce the EU’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels and mitigate climate disruption.
Shadow rapporteur for the Greens/EFA, Ville Niinistö (Finnish) believed that this was the bare minimum. He advocates the target be raised to 56% (compared to 32% in the current piece of legislation), based on a study commissioned by his group; according to this study, the energy transition strategy aiming to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2040 is technically feasible and economically viable.
Shadow rapporteurs for the ID and ECR groups, Paolo Borchia (Italian) and Grzegorz Tobiszowski (Polish) have, nonetheless, lambasted the targets for being “unrealistic” and not taking current circumstances into account.
Joining his ECR colleague, Zdzisław Krasnodębski even called for a moratorium, from 2 to 5 years, on “the European Commission’s exuberant ambitions in the area of climate and energy policy”.
Although European Commissioner for Transport Adina-Ioana Vălean welcomed the fact that Mr Pieper’s amended draft report (see EUROPE 12992/5) is aligned with the target proposed by the European Commission under its ‘REPowerEU’ plan, she criticised the proposal for keeping an indicative target for the heating and cooling sector (see EUROPE 12984/6).
“The non-binding element significantly decreases the ambition of the Commission’s proposals”, she felt.
Although the Greens/EFA have submitted an amendment aiming to make the target binding, it is unlikely to be adopted. In fact, it will not be put to a vote if the amendments approved in the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) are adopted later during the voting session that will be held tomorrow (Wednesday).
While few changes are expected to be made with respect to the draft report as amended by the ITRE Committee, new amendments on biomass submitted by the Renew Europe, EPP, and S&D groups are expected to be approved (see EUROPE 13019/2).
See the study commissioned by the Greens/EFA: https://aeur.eu/f/320 (Original version in French by Damien Genicot)