On Tuesday 19 December, in the margins of the Energy Council, the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, and the energy ministers of the 27 EU Member States signed a joint political declaration on Energy Efficiency Financing and the development of a European Energy Efficiency Financing Coalition.
“The Joint Declaration underlines the importance of mobilising private investment for energy efficiency and of creating a long-term, viable funding framework for energy efficiency investments”, explained the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy (DG ENER) in a press release.
This simple declaration of intent is intended to lay the foundations for the creation of a future European coalition, establishing trilateral collaboration between the Commission, the Member States and financial institutions on energy efficiency.
Drawing on the results achieved by the Energy Efficiency Financial Institutions Group (EEFIG), set up in 2013 by the European Commission, and based on Article 30 of the Energy Efficiency Directive, the signatories intend to strengthen Europe’s response to the energy and climate objectives that the Union has set itself for 2030 and 2050.
Three distinct entities are envisaged within the future coalition: a policy group, an expert group and national clusters dedicated to developing specific energy efficiency financing solutions for each market at national level.
“By signing the Joint Declaration today, we underline the fundamental role of energy efficiency in our efforts to accomplish our energy transition and decarbonise our economy”, said Ms Simson in a statement. (Original version in French by Bernard Denuit)