The European Commission’s communication on renewable energy issued today examines the current 2020 framework for the development of the sector and outlines policy options for the post-2020 phase. EREC welcomes the Commission’s focus on implementing and enforcing the 2020 target for renewables, but regrets its lack of ambition when it comes to a 2030 agenda. Renewable energy growth will slump after 2020 if a post-2020 policy framework is not developed, EREC warns.

“The Commission is pushing for rigorous implementation and enforcement of the Renewable Energy Directive, and rightly so. We must make sure that, even in the current economic crisis, we meet our 2020 objectives, and most importantly for our industry the 20% target for renewables”, said Arthouros Zervos, President of the European Renewable Energy Council (EREC).

The communication acknowledges that long-term policy clarity is a prerequisite for ensuring the necessary level of investment, but it remains vague with regard to a post-2020 framework. “The accompanying Impact Assessment clearly shows binding targets for renewables as the option offering most security to the industry towards 2030, however, the communication itself falls short of bringing this to the fore of the political debate”, said the Secretary General of EREC, Josche Muth. EREC and its members are calling for a binding target of 45% renewables for 2030(1).
“Meanwhile, the communication fails to address the heating and cooling sector, where best practice examples of how to incentivise the sector through policy do exist today. What we need is a dedicated action plan for renewable heating and cooling to be proposed by the Commission”, Zervos added.
The communication draws attention to recent reforms in EU Member States that have had detrimental effects on the renewable energy market and have undermined investor confidence in the sector. “At EREC, we welcome the upcoming guidelines on the reform of support schemes as they will prevent retroactive changes in the future”, Muth stated, going on to say: “We are ready to bring forward our expertise and help the Commission to identify existing obstacles and best practices in this area.

(1)For EREC's 2030 position see: http://www.erec.org/media/publications/45-by-2030.html