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Pro­mot­ing renew­able energy use

20.12.2017
On 18 Decem­ber 2017, the European Coun­cil adop­ted its pos­i­tion on a dir­ect­ive pro­mot­ing the use of renew­able energy across the EU. This agree­ment paves the way for the Coun­cil to start nego­ti­ations with the European Par­lia­ment as soon as its nego­ti­at­ing man­date is agreed. The EU is com­mit­ted to reach a tar­get of at least 27% renew­able energy of its over­all energy con­sump­tion by 2030. This dir­ect­ive, in line with the guidelines of the European Coun­cil from Octo­ber 2014, con­firms this bind­ing tar­get and puts in place the appro­pri­ate frame­work and tools to achieve that goal. The new legis­la­tion addresses bioen­ergy, sus­tain­ab­il­ity, trans­port, elec­tri­city, heat­ing and cool­ing, and in par­tic­u­lar, focuses on empower­ing con­sumers. Facil­it­at­ing and enhan­cing con­sumers’ use of renew­ables is a key ele­ment in the Coun­cil’s pos­i­tion. ​“This decision has a dir­ect and pos­it­ive impact on all Europeans. Using more renew­able energy will help our cit­ies, indus­tries and houses become clean­er, health­i­er and more sus­tain­able. The dir­ect­ive will also make it easi­er for con­sumers to take the ini­ti­at­ive and become pro­du­cers them­selves. Through a com­bin­a­tion of action by gov­ern­ments, com­pan­ies and con­sumers, we will be able to main­tain our glob­al lead­er­ship in renew­ables.” Kadri Sim­son, Min­is­ter for Eco­nom­ic Affairs and Infra­struc­ture of the Repub­lic of Esto­nia.

The main ele­ments of the Coun­cil’s gen­er­al approach are as follows:

  • Con­sumers will bene­fit from sim­pli­fied noti­fic­a­tion pro­ced­ures for small-scale install­a­tions, and the rights and oblig­a­tions of ​‘renew­able self-con­sumers’ as well as renew­able energy com­munit­ies are now clearly set out.
  • Regard­ing heat­ing and cool­ing, mem­ber states will have to adopt meas­ures to achieve an indic­at­ive annu­al 1 per­cent­age point increase in the share of renew­able energy. As exist­ing nation­al sys­tems and install­a­tions dif­fer widely across the EU in this respect, this is taken into account in the Coun­cil text. In par­tic­u­lar, it reflects the spe­cif­ic char­ac­ter­ist­ics of ​‘cool­ing’ install­a­tions in warm­er climates.
  • In the trans­port sec­tor, the renew­ables tar­get for 2030 is set at 14% for each mem­ber state, and there is a sub-tar­get of 3% for ​‘advanced bio­fuels’, for which double-count­ing will be allowed. This advanced bio­fuels tar­get has an inter­me­di­ate bind­ing mile­stone of 1% in 2025 to increase invest­ment secur­ity and guar­an­tee the avail­ab­il­ity of fuels through­out the peri­od. Elec­tro­mobil­ity is strongly encour­aged by two mul­ti­pli­ers of 5x for renew­able elec­tri­city used in road trans­port, and of 2x for rail trans­port. The exist­ing 7% cap on first-gen­er­a­tion bio­fuels is main­tained to provide cer­tainty to investors. If a mem­ber state sets a lower cap, it will be rewar­ded with the option of lower­ing its over­all tar­get for renew­ables in transport.
The dir­ect­ive also cla­ri­fies rules con­cern­ing the sus­tain­ab­il­ity cri­ter­ia and green­house gas emis­sions sav­ing cri­ter­ia that apply to bio­fuels, bio­li­quids and bio­mass fuels. Mem­ber states will have the pos­sib­il­ity of open­ing up their nation­al sup­port schemes across bor­ders to gen­er­at­ors of renew­able energy in oth­er mem­ber states, but the final decision on this will remain with them. In rela­tion to invest­ments in renew­able energy, the Coun­cil text, like the Com­mis­sion’s pro­pos­al, addresses the sta­bil­ity of fin­an­cial sup­port by pre­vent­ing unjus­ti­fied ret­ro­act­ive changes to sup­port schemes.

Timeline and next steps

On 30 Novem­ber 2016, the Com­mis­sion sub­mit­ted the clean energy pack­age. Its eight legis­lat­ive pro­pos­als, includ­ing the renew­able energy dir­ect­ive, aim at imple­ment­ing the 2015 strategy for an Energy Uni­on with a for­ward-look­ing cli­mate policy. The pack­age as a whole was presen­ted at the Energy Coun­cil meet­ing of Decem­ber 2016. EU min­is­ters had a first exchange of views on the entire pack­age in Feb­ru­ary 2017 and assessed the pro­gress made on gov­ernance, renew­able energy and the elec­tri­city mar­ket design in June 2017. The European Par­lia­ment is expec­ted to agree on its nego­ti­at­ing man­date for this dir­ect­ive in the begin­ning of next year. The Coun­cil stands ready to start nego­ti­ations imme­di­ately after. Source: European Council
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