Coordination meeting focuses on renewables uptake

The two-day event ’Progress in the Promotion of Renewable Energy in the European Community’ took stock of the state of play of implementing the Renewable Energy Directive in the Energy Community Contracting Parties and assessed how existing barriers to the uptake of renewables could be overcome, the Energy Community said on its website. One of the underlying messages was that renewables are a necessity not just in terms of mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable growth, but also diversifying the energy mix and contributing to the security of energy supply by reducing dependence on external energy sources. “It is high time to bring back the focus on renewables and regain the momentum lost,” meeting participants heard.

Renewables are a necessity not just in terms of mitigating climate change and ensuring sustainable growth, but also diversifying the energy mix and contributing to the security of energy supply.

The contracting parties are in general late in the implementation of the directive requirements and also in terms of meeting the trajectories to reach their binding national renewables targets by 2020. Implementing the 10% biofuels in transport target is severely lagging behind, the press release said. As rules on the sustainability criteria for biofuels have not been adopted, even the existing very small biofuels consumption cannot count towards a country’s target. The first drafts of the necessary sustainability mechanisms are now under preparation by several contracting parties, following targeted assistance by the Energy Community Secretariat. Speakers underlined the need to improve the accuracy of statistical information on renewables in order to precisely track the implementation of the national targets.