With the beginning of its presidential term of the European Council, Hungary has submitted the last missing National Renewable Energy Action Plan of the European Union. With all plans now on the table, it is now possible to take stock and draw conclusions for the reaching of the target of 20% Renewable Energy in 2020.
EUFORES board members Claude Turmes (EUFORES President, Member of the European Parliament - MEP), Fiona Hall (EUFORES Vice-President, MEP) and Anni Podimata (EUFORES Vice-President, MEP) have added up all the numbers presented in the plans submitted and have been pleasantly surprised to find that, in fact, Member States predict in their plans to overshoot the target by 0.73%.
“I am very pleased to note that the Member States have done their homework and confirm the European Parliament’s point of view that 20% share of Renewable Energy in Europe’s final energy consumption in 2020 is absolutely feasible and is only the minimum target”, says Fiona Hall (MEP UK, Liberals & Democrats). “The fact that 15 countries will exceed their national targets and only two countries will need to rely on the cooperation mechanisms for reaching their target show that the targets were absolutely realistic.”
Urgent implementation of NREAPs now required
Anni Podimata (MEP Greece, Socialists & Democrats) shared her colleague’s delight about the positive numbers, but insists: “The Member States are now urgently called upon to implement the national action plans; hence to cut red tape on authorisations, develop infrastructures, train skilled work force and create stable national support mechanisms, which will be key to get this framework attractive for investments."
The NREAPs, for which the deadline of submission passed in June 2010, are part of the implementation of the Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources (2009/28/EC), which was adopted in 2009.
EUFORES President Claude Turmes (MEP Luxembourg, Greens/EFA), who acted as rapporteur of the Directive for the European Parliament says: “This Directive is the most comprehensive piece of legislation the European Union has ever had when it comes to the promotion of renewable energy. It is important that Member States will get the time to implement this properly now. In that respect we deplore that some political actors want to reopen an old and unnecessary discussion about replacing successful national support schemes by European tradable green certificates. Such a scheme would be more expensive for EU consumers than the actual national support schemes. I am pleased to see that except one, all Member States are rejecting this idea.”
The EUFORES Board of Presidents is waiting for the results of an in-depth evaluation of the NREAPs, which is currently conducted by the consortium of the REPAP2020 project and which will be available in spring 2011.
EUFORES is an independent, non-profit organisation founded 1995 by Members of Parliament and other key actors and is today a leading promoter of renewable energy and energy efficiency. EUFORES’ core objective is the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Europe.
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