Conflicts & War

European Commission presents €210bn plan to quit Russian fossil fuels

Brussels, May 18 (EFE).- The European Commission on Wednesday said the bloc will have to invest 210 billion euros and reduce energy consumption by at least 5% to become independent of Russian fossil fuels by 2030.

“It is clear we need to put an end to this dependence and a lot faster than we had foreseen before this war,” the EC vice-president, Frans Timmermans, said during the presentation of RePower EU initiative to reduce gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year and ended it entirely by 2030.

The new roadmap, outlined after the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, comes in addition to the European Union’s Fit for 55 climate package to reduce carbon emissions by at least 55% by 2030.

“Repower EU is the 11th floor in a 10-story building,” a senior European official said, adding “it will be very hard, but it will also be worth it.”

Replacing some 100 billion cubic meters of gas of the 155 billion that the EU imports from Russia each year will mean that coal-burning power plants will be kept operating for longer periods and new nuclear power reactors will be built.

The EC estimates that the energy mix in 2030 will have an additional 100 terawatt-hours of coal generation and another 44 terawatt-hours in atomic generation.

But this will not compromise the EU climate objectives.

Nuclear hardly releases CO2 and, despite the fact that more coal will be burned, there will also be massive investment in clean energy, with 86 billion euros for renewables and 27 billion for hydrogen infrastructure.

According to RePower EU, 45% of the EU’s energy will come from renewable sources, instead of 40% as previously planned, while energy consumption will decrease by at least 13% instead of 9%.

To achieve this, the commission wants, among other things, to increase the solar photovoltaic capacity set in the EU by 600 gigawatts by 2030 and make solar panels on roofs mandatory. EFE

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