HIGHER AMBITION FOR OUR ENERGY TRANSITION
A Europe with affordable, secure energy, and a safe climate is everyone’s business
Right now, European energy ministers have a critical chance to not only help solve the immediate energy crisis, but to put us on track to tackle climate change.
As civil society organisations and businesses, we’re calling on them to do what is necessary and commit to 50% renewable energy and 20% energy efficiency targets for 2030.
We need higher targets because:
Reducing our use of fossil fuels is necessary to solve three critical problems at once: cutting energy bills, securing our energy supply, and acting on climate change.
We have missed many opportunities to pivot away from the fuels driving catastrophic climate change, and we cannot afford to delay this transition any longer. As energy bills spiral out of control across Europe, both businesses and consumers alike face hard choices.
The overwhelming majority of European citizens support massive investments in renewable energy.
87% of Europeans think “the EU should invest massively in renewable energies such as solar and wind”. Rather than returning to business as usual and sinking more public money into fossil fuels, we should listen to our own citizens and focus on a renewable path out of the energy crisis. Higher targets for renewables and energy efficiency are not only an economic and climate imperative, but also hugely popular.
Ambitious targets create certainty for business, good green jobs for workers, and affordable energy for everyone.
Setting binding 2030 targets of 50% sustainable renewables in the energy mix and a 20% increase in energy efficiency will accelerate the transition away from expensive and unsustainable fossil fuels, greatly reduce energy prices and volatility, and create European jobs.
Joint open letter sent to the 27 EU Energy Ministers
A clean, secure energy supply that supports a stable climate is the business of every company and community across Europe.
Over a 100 businesses and NGOs have signed onto the joint statement below asking for EU Energy Ministers to commit to 50% renewable energy and 20% energy efficiency targets for 2030.
Dear EU Energy Ministers,
Unaffordable energy bills. War in Europe. Accelerating climate change and biodiversity loss. It should be no surprise that these problems are all linked to our dependence on fossil fuels.
Fortunately, there is a solution: a rapid transition to a strong and flexible energy system based on sustainable renewable energy, and energy savings.
Increasing our ambition for energy transition at this critical moment will help to overcome these challenges, benefitting people and businesses alike. Energy is the force that drives our prosperity, both at home and at work. We know that significant investments in renewable energy and efficiency will deliver permanent cuts to energy bills, secure our energy supply, mitigate climate change and create green jobs.
As you meet to chart the path out of the energy crisis, you have the opportunity to demonstrate leadership and ambition by committing to targets of 50% renewable energy in the energy mix, and a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2030.
Rather than weakening the renewable energy target of 45%, we as businesses and civil society see the need to hold ambition high. Research has shown that 50% is both feasible and necessary. We ask for consistent policy leadership to put Europe clearly at the forefront of this important evolution in our economy.
More ambitious targets will stimulate our economies with new jobs and take the pressure off families with permanent cuts to energy bills. This increased ambition will also put us on track to stay below the 1.5°C limit for a safe climate, while respecting the wishes of the people in our democracies.
More than €108 billion and counting has flowed from the EU to Russia for fossil fuels since it invaded Ukraine, but last year the record growth of wind and solar power installed in the EU saved €11 billion on fossil gas.
Meanwhile, 87% of Europeans think “the EU should invest massively in renewable energies such as solar and wind” and “should reduce its dependency on Russian sources of energy as soon as possible”.
A clean, secure energy supply that supports a stable climate is the business of every company and community across Europe. Now is the time to seize a true win-win situation to build a more affordable, greener and more secure future for all Europeans.
Signed,
Share this post from your twitter account:
Clean, affordable, secure energy & stable climate is the business of every company & community across Europe.
This means goals of: 50% renewable energy & 20% energy efficiency targets for 2030.
Time for ambition EU Energy Ministers. #RepowerForThePeople
https://higherambitionnow.eu
More than 100 businesses & civil society groups are today calling on EU energy ministers to commit to 50% #renewableenergy & 20% #energyefficiency targets for 2030.
Both are essential to:
💸Cut bills
🔋Secure energy supplies
🌍Protect our #climate
https://higherambitionnow.eu
Signatories:
What are energy ministers discussing?
Renewable Energy Directive (RED)
The RED aims to promote energy from renewable sources. Further improvements in the directive can promote a faster rollout of sustainable renewable energy with people and biodiversity at the centre. This can build resilient local economies and brings important benefits such as the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, reducing health costs and environmental damages caused by fossil fuel combustion.
Energy Efficiency Directive (EED)
The EED aims to promote energy efficiency measures to increase energy savings throughout Europe. Improving the directive can lead to more energy savings that bring important benefits such as greenhouse gas emissions reductions, job creation, lower energy bills, reduced air pollution and improved health.
What a good RED and EED looks like
The European Commission’s ‘REPowerEU’ package proposes a renewable energy target of 45% and an energy efficiency one of 13% for the renewable energy and energy efficiency directives. While this is a step in the right direction, CAN Europe and the European Environmental Bureau demonstrate that targets of 50% renewable energy and at least 20% energy efficiency are necessary to be Paris Agreement Compatible and limit global warming to 1.5 degrees C.
Buy once, buy well is a concept businesses and consumers understand.
With so much riding on energy choices, Ministers must choose once, choose ambition.
Additional actions
Joint open letter sent to Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala in October
Citizens, civil society and businesses call for higher ambition on EU’s 2030 energy targets.
Dear Prime Minister Fiala,
We – the European citizens, businesses, industry leaders, civil society organisations- are uniting in our call for EU and National policy makers to commit to higher ambition that will help alleviate the impact of the current energy price crisis through enhancing our energy security while also delivering our Paris climate commitments. Ahead of the trilogue negotiations starting this month, we are calling for higher EU binding targets in the Energy Efficiency (EED) and Renewable Energy (RED) Directives in order to rapidly improve energy savings and accelerate the deployment of renewable energy across Europe.
Read more
A winter of energy uncertainty approaches and there is now an urgent need for short-term solutions that address the current energy price crisis and the soaring cost of living, which is being felt by homes, communities and businesses across the country. This is on top of the dangerous summer heatwaves and the recent flash floods in Italy brought on by the climate emergency. As well as fueling Russia’s war in Ukraine, our overdependence on fossil fuels has been the root cause of these crises. As President Von der Leyen pointed out in her State of the Union Address last month, the dependency of Russian fossil fuels comes at a high price and we have to get rid of this dependency all over Europe.
Last June, the Energy Council supported the European Commission’s proposal for targets in July 2021, as part of the Fit For 55 Package. These targets were proposed before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Energy Council’s endorsement of these targets already failed to recognise the looming climate emergency, and now fail to recognise the current energy price crisis. As part of the ongoing discussions on the EED and RED revisions, EU Member States need to support increased sustainable energy targets. The targets endorsed by the EU Parliament are a step in the right direction, but there is also demand to go for higher targets that will give the right signals for increased support and investments for the roll-out of sustainable renewables and energy savings measures. Increased energy targets will help lower our dependency on Russian fossil gas, enhance member states’ energy security – shield homes, communities and businesses from skyrocketing energy bills, as well as the worsening impacts of the climate crisis, for safe winters and summers.
Inaction from our governments is proving costly. Rapidly improving energy savings and accelerating the deployment of sustainable renewable energy will not only help protect people from the high energy price increases in this coming decade, but will address the larger, looming climate emergency that will affect the current and future generations for decades to come. Now is the time for key EU decision makers and member states to put us on a path to an energy secure, climate-neutral, safer Europe.
Signed
Joint Baltic call to increase renewable energy and energy efficiency targets in EU
About
This website is hosted by Europe Beyond Coal and Climate Action Network Europe. Content gathered here is not specifically the work of any single organisation, but rather a collection of activities from organisations and businesses that have come together to support a common cause: calling for greater ambition on Europe’s energy transition from EU decision makers. Business and civil society groups that lend their names and logos for activities on this page do so in support of the specific actions contained within, and should not be seen as tacit endorsement of each other’s statements or actions outside of this page.
Images generated by DALL·E from the prompt: “European Energy Ministers choosing to be ambitious on wind and solar power, in the style of gustav klimt”
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Contact Us
James O’Connor
CAN Europe
james.oconnor@caneurope.org
Greg McNevin
Europe Beyond Coal
greg@beyond-coal.eu