Ditte Juul Jørgensen, Energy Director General of the European Commission explains how the energy sector can contribute to Europe’s economic recovery.
The European Green Deal, adopted in 2019, aims to put Europe on the path towards climate neutrality by 2050, while preserving the competitiveness and sustainability of our economies. In parallel, Europe must come out of the COVID-19 crisis stronger and more confident. The Green Deal is, therefore, the cornerstone of the economic recovery and, together with the EU recovery package it will help Europe rebuild itself after the pandemic and will support all the necessary investments in the green transition, with International Energy Agency figures highlighting that investment in energy projects creates more jobs than in any other sector. Within this equation, the energy sector, as a key vector of the Green Deal, has a vital role to play in Europe’s economic recovery.
The proposed recovery package consists of €1,824.3 billion, which combines the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) and an extraordinary recovery effort, the Next Generation EU (NGEU) proposal. Under this instrument, the European Green Deal and energy and climate action, in particular, take a prominent role. The ambition is to at least double the annual renovation rate of the existing building stock, to invest in technologies key for the clean energy transition, such as renewable and energy storage technologies, clean hydrogen, and batteries, and to work on additional initiatives on offshore energy and energy system integration.
Concretely, on system integration and hydrogen, two important Green Deal strategies have been put forward recently, the first major concrete Green Deal initiatives in the energy field since its launch.
The Strategy for Energy System Integration will improve and integrate Europe’s energy systems and will lay down the foundations for the framework for the green energy transition. 75% of the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions come from the energy sector, making it imperative for the EU’s energy system to become more integrated and flexible in order to accommodate the cleanest and most cost-effective energy solutions. The current model where energy consumption in transport, industry, gas and buildings is happening in ‘silos’ – each with separate value chains, rules, infrastructure, planning and operations – cannot deliver climate neutrality by 2050 in a cost-efficient way; the changing costs of innovative solutions have to be integrated in the way we operate our energy system. New links between sectors must be created and technological progress exploited.
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