The European Union is on a pathway to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This report “Renewables, electrification and flexibility: For a competitive EU energy system transformation by 2030” by the European Environment Agency explores the historic and necessary efforts to align Europe′s electricity, heating and transport systems with transformative EU benchmarks for 2030 to meet that longer-term goal. CO2 emissions have declined significantly in the EU electricity subsystem over the past few decades.
This presents an important opportunity to decarbonise rapidly in the near future and to roll out electrification to other sectors, while strengthening energy independence, security and competitiveness for all EU countries. Through accelerated gains in energy and resource efficiency and the alignment of Member States′ efforts within a more coherent EU energy system, the rapid electrification of buildings, transport and industry can greatly reduce Europe′s reliance on foreign fossil fuels and unlock critical progress in heating and transport.
This report analyses the transformation required to achieve a sustainable EU energy system, focusing more specifically on climate mitigation. It also summarises key transformation levers and areas that need increased policy attention to overcome barriers to accelerating the EU energy transformation. Renewables-based electrification, flexibility and energy and resource efficiency emerge from this assessment as the most relevant solutions in the short term, especially when paired with more cross-cutting energy and resource efficiency efforts.
Access the report here
