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Russia\u2019s war in Ukraine is \u201ca war on our energy, a war on our economy, a war on our values and a war on our future\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Those words were those of Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission President who was addressing Parliament on Wednesday in her annual State of the Union speech.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And MEPs apparently took note.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With 418 votes in favour, 109 against and 111 abstentions, the Parliament adopted a new revision of the 2018 directive on renewable energies, part of EU plans presented last year aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 55% before the end of the decade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The 45% renewable energy goal is higher than the 40% endorsed by the member states<\/a> in June \u2013 a decision which however did not take into account the consequences of the war in Ukraine and the Commission\u2019s REPowerEU plan presented in May, which revised the EU\u2019s goals upwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n If this new objective is confirmed by EU member states in upcoming talks with Parliament later this year, the EU will have to achieve a 45% share of renewables in its overall energy mix by 2030 \u2013 more than double the current rate of 22%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n To achieve the EU-wide goal, each EU country will have to implement a minimum of two cross-border electricity projects, and even three for those with an annual electricity consumption of more than 100 terawatt-hours (TWh).<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis is a good day for energy transition in Europe\u201d, said Markus Pieper, a German MEP from the centre-right European People\u2019s Party (EPP) who is the Parliament\u2019s lead negotiator on the text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Greens and The Left tried pushing for an even higher renewable target<\/a> of 55-56% by 2030 in order to reach 100% renewables by 2040.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the alliance between the EPP, the centrist Renew Europe and the left-wing S&D ended up prevailing over the reservations of Green MEPs, who nonetheless overwhelmingly voted in favour of the text, unlike the members of The Left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Manon Aubry, a French MEP who is co-chair of The Left group in Parliament, told EURACTIV.fr she abstained because the directive is \u201cnot ambitious enough\u201d and does not propose \u201cbinding national renewable energy targets\u201d on EU countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The radical left was also against maintaining biomass in the definition of renewable energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n MEPs finally supported the inclusion of biomass in the EU\u2019s renewable energy mix but at a level that should not exceed the average recorded in 2017-2022, bearing in mind that bioenergy represents almost 60% of the EU\u2019s renewable energy sources<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And while the Parliament text introduces a progressive phase down of biomass, it does not indicate an end date, which did not satisfy environmentalists and the left, who called for a complete phase out by 2030.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWhat many of you are proposing is to continue to burn forests for the sake of the climate,\u201d Marie Toussaint, a French Green\/EFA MEP, told the Parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Still, the text supports an end to subsidies for biomass used in power plants<\/a>, as well as the exclusion of palm oil and soya from transport biofuels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Parliament text also also defines sub-targets for sectors such as transport, buildings, and district heating and cooling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As for the definition of \u201cgreen\u201d hydrogen from renewables, MEPs deferred the matter to another EU law that will also define \u201clow-carbon\u201d hydrogen produced for instance from nuclear energy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The text also includes an increase from 13% to 16% in the greenhouse gas emission reduction target for transport, as well as a 5.7% share of renewable fuels of non-biological origin (RFNBO) in the fuel market by 2030, as set out in the Commission\u2019s REPowerEU programme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the REPowerEU goals such as the definition of \u201cgo-to areas\u201d<\/a> and faster permitting procedures for renewable energies were not included in this version of the directive.<\/p>\n\n\n\nTarget insufficient according to the left and Greens<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
RED IV coming soon<\/h3>\n\n\n\n