The Energy Community Ministerial Council adopted 2030 targets to reduce primary and final energy consumption, accelerate the uptake of renewables and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, during its meeting in Vienna yesterday under the “Presidency-in-Office” of Ukraine.
The Ministers also adopted a new electricity package that will enable full market integration of Energy Community Contracting Parties into the European market, based on the principle of reciprocity, which will support the large-scale integration of renewables and coal-phase out. Additionally, the Ministers discussed coordinating measures to secure energy supplies and address the impacts of the price surge.
The Energy Community Contracting Parties comprise Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Ukraine.
“When we assumed the presidency of the Energy Community last January, we planned to focus on the European Green Deal goals, market integration, and energy security and solidarity,” said the Minister of Energy of Ukraine, German Galushchenko, in his opening speech. “The Russian war and energy terror against Ukraine proved these goals to be even more important than ever before. Despite all the challenges, we as a Community managed to progress on all those three key priorities. I am sure that this year of the Ukrainian presidency will be remembered as the year when Europe achieved independence from Russian energy blackmail. I encourage the incoming Albanian presidency to continue relentless work towards these goals.”
According to the Energy Community, the new electricity market package consists of electricity market design elements and technical rules that will establish a “truly integrated electricity market” between the Energy Community Contracting Parties and the neighbouring EU Member States, including their market coupling.
Green light for national renewables targets and new emission reduction measures
The Ministers agreed, as already anticipated in April, to national renewables targets that amount to an overall Energy Community target of 31.0 per cent of energy from renewable sources in gross final energy consumption by 2030. To boost energy efficiency and energy savings, they agreed to cap the amount of primary energy consumption at 129.88 Mtoe and the amount of final energy consumption at 79.06 Mtoe at the level of the Energy Community. They also agreed to cap the total greenhouse gas emissions for the Energy Community at 427.64 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent by 2030, which represents a decrease of 60.9 per cent below 1990 levels.
“Today, at the Energy Community ministerial, we made great progress with advancing the decarbonisation agenda,” said EU Commissioner Kadri Simson. “The adopted targets put the Contracting Parties on a good path to climate neutrality. Home-grown renewables will also contribute to energy security in the region. Importantly, the electricity package adopted today will help to integrate renewables into the energy systems. Once the rules are implemented, the Energy Community Parties will gain full access to the EU electricity market.”
In addition, the Council adopted Regulation (EU) 2018/2066 on monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and associated legal acts. The Regulation will enable the Contracting Parties to have an “accurate and verified” overview of total emissions from energy and other installations and is a core building block for a possible future carbon pricing mechanism. It is also an important first step to secure compliance with the requirements of the EU’s upcoming carbon border adjustment mechanism.
At the close of the meeting, Ukraine officially handed over the Presidency of the Energy Community to Albania, represented by Minister of Infrastructure and Energy, Belinda Balluku.
