A jelenlegi energiapolitikai intézkedések 2020-ig érvényesek, a 2020 utáni időszakot az EU következő klíma- és energiacsomagja határozza meg, mely a teljes EU szintjén 27%-os végső energiafogyasztás-csökkentést irányzott elő. A korábbi energiapolitikai időszakkal szemben a közösségi célt nem osztják fel további kötelező nemzeti célokra, hanem a tagállamok határozzák meg saját hozzájárulásukat a közös 27%-os célhoz. Az ilyen típusú megállapodás még az elköteleződés szintjén sem garantálja a cél teljesítését, ezért az EU-nak előre fel kell készülnie a vészforgatókönyvekkel

Pató, Zsuzsanna

Szabó, László

Corvinus Research Archive

WWW.REKK.HUREKKPOLICY BRIEF032016ZSUZSAN N A PATÓ AN D LÁSZLÓ SZABÓREGIONAL VISION OF EU-LEVEL RENEWABLE ENERGYGOVERNANCE AND EFFORT SHARING FOR 2030Central and South East Europe Energy Policy ForumREKK POLI CY BRI EF | 03/201 6 1 /3H ow coul d the European Com-mission motivate member statesto pl edge to sufficientl y ambitiousnational renewabl e targets?H ow shoul d the European Com-mission proceed, if the aggreg-ated national pl edges do not reachthe needed 27%?Are country l evel benchmarksneeded for the 2030 RES targetsetting? I f so, what shoul d be themethodol ogy – fl at rate, GDP/capitaor RES potential based distribution orother?WWW.REKK.HUREKK POLI CY BRI EF | 03/201 6 2/3The “Central and South East Europe Energy Pol icy Forum:Regional vision of EU-l evel renewabl e energy governanceand effort sharing for 2030” organised by the REKK Found-ation on June 7, 201 6 in Budapest, and al so serving as theregional event of the Towards 2030-Dial ogue project,brought together government representatives of variousCentral and Eastern European member states (Czech Re-publ ic, H ungary, Lithuania, Romania, Sl ovakia and Sl ovenia)and the European Commissions to discuss renewabl e en-ergy use target setting and governance options for theperiod beyond 2030. M r. Jos Del beke from the EuropeanCommission (Director General for Cl imate Action) presen-ted his views on the Paris Agreement and on the function-ing of EU cl imate pol icy. H e emphasised the universalparticipation in the Paris Agreement and the importance ofN ational l y Determined Contributions (N DCs) submitted by1 89 states. A good indication of the success of the currentEU cl imate pol icy is the decoupl ing of economic growthfrom GH G emissions in the l ast decades, irrespective ofeconomic cycl es. ETS can be considered successful in del iv-ering the pol icy target in a cost efficient manner, howeverthe current l ow carbon price-l evel provides a weak incentivefor al ternatives. Based on the I ntended N ational l y Determ-ined Contributions I N DCs, renewabl es account for 62% ofgl obal pl anned cumul ative investment into new powerpl ants between 201 5 and 2040, whereas 42% of total in-vestment wil l go into infrastructure devel opment (repl acingand extending transmission and distribution networks, andfurther infrastructure requirements for renewabl e integra-tion) signal l ing a fundamental shift in el ectricity systems.The representative of M ember States expressed the viewsof their government on the 2030 RES target setting, theprocess of target pl edging and the possibl e course of actionif the EU fai l s to reach its 27% renewabl e target. The mainquestions discussed were the fol l owing: N H ow coul d the European Commission motivate mem-ber states to pl edge to sufficientl y ambitious nationalrenewabl e targets? N H ow shoul d the European Commission proceed, if theaggregated national pl edges do not reach the needed27%? N Are country l evel benchmarks needed for the 2030RES target setting? I f so, what shoul d be the method-ol ogy – fl at rate, GDP/capita or RES potential baseddistribution or other? N Are there any suggestions for the methods for cl osingthe gap to the target, if necessary?Renewable target for 2030The current renewabl e pol icy period ends in 2020 and thepreparation for the post 2020 period is underway, driven bythe next EU cl imate and energy package agreement on anew renewabl e energy target of at l east 27% of final energyconsumption in the EU as a whol e by 2030. Unl ike the cur-rent period, this community l evel target wi l l not be disag-gregated into obl igatory national targets, but memberstates are to pl edge their contribution to the 27% target.With this type of agreement the achievement of the EU tar-get is not guaranteed, even in the commitment phase, andtherefore pl ans must be devised on how to fi l l the gap tothe target if necessary.The concl usions of the intensive one-day discussion were: N The question of how to determine national contribu-tions to the union-l evel renewabl e target is central tothe discussion. Options incl ude a “top-down” ap-proach where M ember State contributions are cl osel yguided by benchmarks determined by the EuropeanCommission on the basis of pre-determined criteria.These criteria potential l y incl ude the GDP, resourcepotential , energy consumption or a mixture of al lthree to arrive at a fair distribution for cl osing the gapto the 2030 RES targets. A second possibi l i ty is tofol l ow a bottom-up method where member statespl edge their national contribution independentl y,based on their own assessment. Member States ex-pressed their preferences toward the bottom-upmethodology where they themselves decide on theirpledges without any intervention form the EuropeanCommission. This opinion was shared by all particip-ating state representatives. Any benchmarkingshoul d onl y serve for information purposes to assistM ember states in determining their pl edges. N Benchmarks can be set on the basis of various para-meters: on a singl e criterion (GDP, resource potential ,energy consumption) or a weighted mix of these cri-teria as for the 2020 target. In the discussion, Mem-ber States expressed their opinion that benchmarksshould be based on several criteria. N The 2020 framework sets a singl e national target forrenewabl e use, even though member states have toset a trajectory for each renewabl e sector (RES-E,RES-H ) in their N ational Renewabl e Action Pl an. Thefl exibi l i ty provided by the singl e target can potential l ybe displ aced by sectoral targets stepping beyond thereporting requirement. I n addition, setting a separatetarget for the transport sector, as in the 2020 frame-work, is yet to be decided for the 2020-2030 period.Most Member State representatives shared the opin-ion that sectoral shares should be left to their owndiscretion, keeping the flexibil ity provided in thecurrent regime. Concerning the separate transportsector target, the participants were indecisive sinceit could require individual treatment.WWW.REKK.HUREKK POLI CY BRI EF | 03/201 6 3/3 N I n order to fol l ow compl iance more cl osel y and to beabl e to intervene when a M ember State is l agging be-hind in compl iance, setting interim target(s) (e.g. asingl e target for 2025 or biannual targets) is a viabl eoption.Member States stated that they prefer to sup-port the Council conclusions from November 2015which states the procedure for interim assessments ofthe progress achieved (in mid-2020s). N o interim tar-gets shoul d be stated due to the character of the2030 target as agreed by the European Counci l inOctober 201 4. N I f the aggregated M ember State pl edges do not reachthe 27% threshol d then some sort of ‘gap fi l l ing’mechanism wil l need to be impl emented. One pos-sibl e sol ution is to organise EU wide auctions, whereal l M Ss can make an offer for additional capacities.Another option is that gap-fi l l ing woul d be based onpre-agreed benchmark val ues whereby M emberStates woul d contribute to the coverage of the miss-ing RES production according to the ambitiousness oftheir pl edge (compared to pre-set benchmark). Thepreferred gap-fil l ing method of the participants wasthe EU-wide auctioning, but they cautioned that sucha scheme shoul d consider additional RES depl oymentinvestment requirements, such as network devel op-ment for RES integration. Benefits – such as securityof suppl y and empl oyment impacts – need to befactored at the national l evel with the possibi l i ty toopt out from hosting the projects of such an EU wideauction. N I f the missing renewabl e production woul d be pro-cured by an EU-wide auction, the financing mechan-ism that woul d directl y affect the financingrequirement of each M ember State woul d need to beestabl ished. The main options are to finance the auc-tion from the sal e of EUAs (ETS auction revenues),cover its cost from the EU central budget, or distrib-ute costs according to the pre-agreed benchmark.The preferred financing options were ranked in thefollowing order by the participants: ETS financing,EU budget financing, pre-agreed benchmark. N Up to now regional cooperation to reach RES targetswas used in a l imited fashion. But as targets becomemore stringent in the 2030 framework its rol e is l ikel yto increase. The question remains whether there is aneed for such a cooperation option and if so underwhat conditions. M ember State representatives ex-pressed their view that to foster regional cooperationthe European Commission should come up withguidelines on good practices in order to help facil it-ate such cooperation. Al so the EC shoul d provideguidel ines on the good practices of opening up sup-port schemes to other member states.I n summary, M ember State representatives wel comed asystem in distributing the efforts for the 2030 EU targetwhere the decision on the pl edge itsel f is ful l y under theircontrol . They foresee a system where M ember States an-nounce their pl edge on their own initiative, both the associ-ated impl ementation measures and the enforcementmechanisms. M Ss wel come the EC to hel p them in this pro-cedure by providing guidel ines on good practices in the re-gional isation of effort, providing benchmarks (probabl y ona mixed criteria, simi l ar to the 2020 target sharing method)to hel p their assessment of potential contributions but witha l imited rol e in the enforcement of the pl edges in the in-terim period and maintaining the fl exibi l i ty provided by asingl e renewabl e target.AuthorsZsuzsanna Pató is a SeniorResearcher at REKK She re-ceived PhD in pol itical sci-ence from the CEU,Department of I nternationalRel ations. During her studiesas an independent expert sheserved in various researchand pol icy assessment activ-ities mandated by H ungarianand foreign institutions, in-cl uding UN EP, UN DP and FAO. Since 2005 her work atREKK focuses on renewabl e energy regul ation and energyefficiency pol icy making with regional and European scope.Contact: zsuzsanna.pato@rekk.huLászló Szabó is a Senior Re-searcher at REKK. H e re-ceived PhD from theCorvinus University of Bud-apest in economics. H e parti-cipated in several EU projectsdeal ing with cl imate changemitigation and adaptation is-sues and al so investigatedenergy efficiency measures,publ ishing the resul ts in sev-eral peer-reviewed journal s. Since 201 0 his work at REKKfocuses on various energy rel ated topics, amongst them theregul ation of renewabl e energy sources in H ungary and al soin the wider region, energy economics of bui l dings, andanal ysing el ectricity market devel opments in the short andmedium term with a regional context.Contact: l aszl o.szabo@rekk.hu© REKK Foundation 201 6

Regional Vision of EU-level Renewable Energy Governance and Effort Sharing for 2030

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