Photo: Energy Community
The Energy Community Ministerial Council published ambitious targets for renewables, greenhouse gas emission cuts and energy savings for 2030, alongside an electricity market package.
Ministers of energy of Western Balkan countries, Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia held an annual meeting in Vienna as the top decision making body in the Energy Community. They adopted 2030 targets to reduce primary and final energy consumption, accelerate the uptake of renewables and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. The goals for individual contracting parties will be published shortly.
Under the presidency-in-office of Ukraine, which handed the duty over to Albania, the Energy Community Ministerial Council agreed to a target of 31% of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption. To boost energy efficiency and energy savings, the cap for primary energy consumption was set at 129.88 megatons of oil equivalent while the amount of final energy consumption is now limited to 79.06 megatons.
The EU has an emission reduction target of 55% for 2030
The ministers said they would cap greenhouse gas emissions at 427.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, which would be a decrease of 60.9% below 1990 levels. In comparison, the European Union is targeting an emissions cut of just 55%.
Citing the latest report on the implementation of the Energy Community acquis, Energy Community Secretariat Director Artur Lorkowski said the contracting parties are making progress, including in the integration with the EU. Decarbonization will be needed to have a market fully integrated with the EU, he pointed out.
Simson: Electricity package will help integrate renewables
“We made great progress with advancing the decarbonization agenda. The adopted targets put the contracting parties on a good path to climate neutrality. Home-grown renewables will also contribute to the energy security in the region. Importantly, the electricity package adopted today will help to integrate the renewables into the energy systems. Once the rules are implemented, the Energy Community contracting parties will gain full access to the EU electricity market,” European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson said.
Today’s agreement will help the region to partly replace some fossil fuels with renewables, she stressed.
The electricity package consists of the Electricity Regulation, the ACER Regulation, the Network Code on Emergency and Restoration and four market and system operation guidelines, namely on forward capacity allocation, capacity allocation and congestion management, system operation and electricity balancing, and a procedural act on fostering regional energy market integration in the Energy Community.
They are market design elements and technical rules that will establish a truly integrated electricity market between the contracting parties and their EU neighbors, the Energy Community Secretariat said.
New rule for measuring emissions is step toward carbon pricing mechanism
The council also adopted Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 on monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and associated legal acts. It will enable the contracting parties to have an accurate and verified overview of total emissions from energy and other installations, which can be used for the creation of a carbon pricing mechanism.
It is also important for securing compliance with the requirements of the EU’s upcoming Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism.
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