Europe is on the road to a rapid transition in the electricity sector to meet its aims regarding containing energy prices and its ambitious climate goals.
But after the EU elections in June, the incoming Parlament and Commission will have to carry out these energy reforms as they strive to achieve net zero by 2050. Will Europe be on track and will anything change with the political shakeup?
Join Euronews’ debate live from the European Parliament on 21 February at 13:30 CET where politicians and renewable energy companies will look ahead to the deep transformation that needs to happen and answer if it really can. You can watch it live on Euronews or Euronews.com.
You can watch the debate live in the video player at the top of this article.
Register here:
We will also be taking a deep dive into whether Europe can meet its climate change targets for 2030, 2040, and 2050.
The distinguished panel includes Eva Chamizo, director of European affairs at Iberdrola, MEP Mohammed Chahim, Tom Howes, the European Commission’s advisor on the green transition and market regulation, and WindEurope’s chief policy officer Pierre Tardieu.
Euronews’ climate and science correspondent Jeremy Wilks will be moderating the session.
At the heart of the Euronews debate is the electricity market reform, which, last December, the Council and European Parliament reached a provisional political agreement on.
The goal of the reform is not just to increase green electricity but also to protect consumers from rising electricity prices, which shot up due to the Russia-Ukraine war. The rules have yet to be formally approved and may be subject to change under a new EU leadership.
Meet our panel
Dr Mohammed Chahim is a Member of the European Parliament for the Dutch social democrats. He is a member of the committee on environment, health and food safety and the committee on industry research and energy. He is vice-president of the S&D group, responsible for climate & energy policies and the European Green Deal.
Previously, he worked as a researcher in environmental economics and energy transition at the Dutch organisation for applied scientific research (TNO).
Pierre Tardieu is chief policy officer at WindEurope. He leads WindEurope’s policy department covering advocacy, innovation, market intelligence and stakeholder engagement. Pierre also co-manages the Renewable Hydrogen Coalition, the Energy Storage Coalition and RE-Source. He joined WindEurope in 2011 and has a decade and a half of experience in European climate and energy policy.
Tom Howes is the advisor to the director in the energy department of the European Commission responsible for the green transition and energy system integration, including electricity market design. Until June 2022, he was head of the Energy and Environment Division at the International Energy Agency (IEA), leading work on energy sector resilience, and supporting the IEA at COP.
In the past, he has worked on renewable energy market and grid integration issues, energy modelling, and energy finance, for the European Commission and the UK and Australian governments.
Eva Chamizo Llatas is the director of European affairs at Iberdrola and secretary non-director of Iberdrola Energía Internacional’s board. She is also a member of the board of directors at the Spanish Chamber of Commerce in Belgium and Luxemburg.
Her roles before this included being president of the European Association for Storage of Energy and working as a state attorney in the legal service of the Permanent Representation of Spain to the European Union. In this period, she was a member of various working groups in the Council of the European Union, during two Spanish Presidencies of the Union (2002 and 2010).
The winds of change
In the EU’s 2019 elections, Green parties made significant gains across the bloc. The vote pushed the then-new Commission President Ursula von der Leyen to present the ambitious Green Deal, which aims to make Europe climate-neutral by 2050.
But the EU Parliament is set to change in the June vote, with polls showing a shift to right-wing political parties in many countries.
According to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), centre-left and green parties are predicted to lose their votes and seats, while populist radical right parties will make gains.
The ECFR also predicts that in the European Parliament, a populist right coalition could emerge with a majority for the first time, likely squashing von der Leyen’s green ambitions.
What stands in the way of renewable energy?
But it is not just politics that stand in the way of a cleaner, greener Europe.
February 2023 to January 2024 already saw a warming of 1.52 degrees Celsius, which is above the Paris climate deal’s crucial 1.5C warming threshold.
The European Commission realises the urgency to meet the bloc’s 2050 climate ambitions and said on February 6 it would need a 90% net greenhouse gas emissions reduction by 2040 compared to 1990 levels, which is in line with recent scientific advice and the EU’s commitments under the Paris Agreement.
In 2022, renewable energy sources made up 22,5% of the EU’s final energy consumption. Hydropower, wind and solar largely make up this figure.
But some of the biggest obstacles to using more renewable energy in Europe are supply chain capacity and the investment framework.
For instance, wind makes up 19% of the electricity consumed in Europe and nearly all of Europe’s wind turbines are made in Europe, according to WindEurope.
Despite the large supply chain, it has been struggling as costs for materials have increased and there is intense competition now from Chinese turbine manufacturers.
But the issues do not just concern wind. In 2022, the International Energy Agency (IEA) found that the world relied on China for more than 80 per cent of the supplies needed for solar panels.
Storing renewable energy is another problem that Europe is facing because electricity produced from wind and solar cannot be stored on a large scale. The European Commission has recognised there is a problem in storing renewables and has set guidelines.
Another key issue for EU countries is electricity grids, which transport electricity across borders — a backlog of wind and solar panels are waiting to be able to connect them. Some of the reasons they cannot connect are because they are waiting for the electricity grids to be built, they already have a permit, or the grids are privately owned.
Europe has the potential to become a leader in renewable energy but it must address these shortfalls.
The following questions will be put to the panel in this debate at the European Parliament: How will Europe’s energy firms stay competitive against aggressive foreign players? Can the promise of fair, transparent and long-term pricing for consumers and businesses come true? And what are the risks of a swing against climate-friendly policies in the European elections?
Stay tuned on euronews.com and on our YouTube channel.
