EU: agreement between states and MEPs to double the share of renewable energy by 2030

The text, approved at dawn after fifteen hours of final talks, sets a binding target of 42.5% of renewables in European consumption by the end of the decade, almost doubling the current level of about 22% (just over 19% in France).

This target is halfway between the 45% demanded by the European Commission and MEPs, and the 40% demanded by the States. This is a significant increase compared to the current EU target for 2030 (32%).

To achieve this, the approved text plans to facilitate and accelerate the authorization procedures for renewable energy infrastructure, with the establishment of dedicated territories where regulations would be relaxed.

The agreement also makes biomass (wood burned to produce electricity) a "100% green" source, stressed MEP Markus Pieper (EPP, right), rapporteur of the text.

This "bioenergy", defended in particular by the Scandinavian countries, is however strongly denounced by environmental NGOs, concerned about the impact on forests as carbon sinks and biodiversity refuges.

However, the use of primary forest biomass has been more strictly defined and regulated. "The use of biomass is better regulated even if the Parliament wanted to go further," said Pascal Canfin MEP (Renew, Liberals), chair of Parliament's Environment Committee.

MEP Pascal Canfin (Renew, liberals), chair of the Environment Parliament's committee, in Brussels on 21 April 2021 © Kenzo TRIBOUILLARD / AFP/Archives

Finally, the text ensures "the recognition of the specific role of nuclear power, which is neither green nor fossil", adds Mr. Canfin.

This point has been the subject of sharp differences in recent weeks between the Twenty-Seven, reviving the divisions between defenders and detractors of the civil atom.

While the text provides for ambitious "renewable" hydrogen targets to be achieved in transport and industry, the France and its allies demanded equal treatment between renewable hydrogen and "low-carbon" hydrogen produced with electricity of nuclear origin.

A red line for several countries (Germany, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, Luxembourg, Portugal, Spain ...), which refused to encourage, in a text devoted to green energies, the production of hydrogen from nuclear, at the risk of slowing down investments in renewables.

Finally, the Swedish EU Presidency, which led the discussions on behalf of member states with MEPs, proposed a compromise to make targets more flexible for countries with significant carbon-free electricity production.

According to the agreement, the renewable hydrogen target for 2030 can be reduced by 20% for member states where the share of fossil hydrogen in the country's hydrogen consumption will be less than 23%.

"This means that France will not be obliged to build renewable energy to make hydrogen for industry and transport but will also be able to use nuclear power (to meet the European target). This was an absolute condition for the France to support the final agreement," Canfin said.

© 2023 AFP