The energy transition will not be a linear, smooth process. It would be an illusion to suppose otherwise. In any case, spending three decades slowing global warming and achieving climate neutrality means wasting time. "Scientific evidence shows that we have fewer than 15 years to avoid a very bleak future," explains William Gillett, director of the Energy programme at the Council of European Academies of Science, the European academies' science advisory council (Easac), a research body that monitors the implementation of climate policies in the European Union, in a press release. Accelerating is possible, he warns, especially when there is a door open onto the future: the European Commission's review of the second renewables directive (Red II).

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Revision of the Renewable Energy Directive: Global warming won’t wait until 2050! - mailchi.mp/f743d50501f4/e…

♥ 1 15 feb 2021 · Apri su X →

The Council draws on data gathered in the Special Report 15 (Sr15), produced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Ipcc), and notes that global temperature risks rising by 1.5 degrees as early as 2030 if greenhouse gas (CO2) emissions do not decrease across the entire planet. "The effects on our climate will be disastrous," Gillett continues. "Certainly, scientists will keep working on what can be done after 2030, but the current European Renewables Directive should clarify how to act before then."

The revision of the European renewables directive

On 4 August 2020, the European executive opened the revision process for the renewables directive, to explore how best to integrate intermittent-source policy with the realisation of the climate and environmental ambitions of the European green deal. "To successfully deliver on the green deal ambition, we have begun assessing the impact that more ambitious climate targets for 2030 and the various scenarios for achieving them would produce," European Energy Commissioner Kadri Simson had declared at the opening of the procedure. The question is whether to raise the European Union's current target for renewable energy production — currently at least 32 per cent by 2030 — to align it with a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of between 50 and 55 per cent compared to pre-industrial levels by the next decade.

Easac's proposals for curbing global warming

Construction, industry and transport are the sectors most responsible for greenhouse gas emissions, whose high concentration in the atmosphere amplifies the greenhouse effect and, in turn, global warming. These are where efforts will need to focus.

With regard to buildings, Easac proposes revising the definition of nearly zero-energy buildings — Nearly Zero Energy Buildings (Nzeb) — and harmonising it to avoid confusion among member states. This definition should account for a building's annual electricity and heat consumption, and in particular the percentage of energy derived from renewables or produced from waste. The underlying premise is that a building can be deemed efficient because it is the result of a deep renovation. And a truly efficient building can guarantee better living conditions for those experiencing energy poverty.

The only biomasses that can be considered renewable, the Council continues, are those that require ten to fifteen years to offset the emissions produced by their use. Only these should be counted within the share of energy produced from renewables. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the construction of new infrastructure and the use of alternative sources are themselves responsible for a share of emissions.

To optimise the intelligent use of energy produced from renewables within district heating and district cooling systems, Easac concludes, it would be necessary to stimulate so-called sector coupling — that is, synergies in the generation, transport and distribution of electricity and gas. Confirming that the merit of these suggestions, it must be stressed, is that the outlook towards a sustainable future cannot be separated from a holistic vision of the energy sector.