Faster electrification of Europe’s economy will allow it to “regain our independence, enhance energy security and fight climate change,” said EDF chairman and Eurelectric president Jean-Bernard Lévy.
Speaking at the opening of Eurelectric’s annual Power Summit in Brussels, Lévy said “climate change requires transformative action on a scale like never before”.
He said this urgency was compounded by the hangover of the coronavirus pandemic and the knock-on energy price effects of the war in Ukraine.
Yet he said there was a silver lining: an accelerated energy transition and electrification can get Europe out of these crises.
And he stressed that a renewed focus on decarbonisation was “not a focus on target X or target Y: our focus should be on the ‘how’: how to strengthen the grid; how to unlock speedier permitting; how to get greater clarity on taxonomy?”
To focus minds on these ‘how’ questions, Eurelectric – the European trade body for electricity sector players – has released four action points, and at a press conference, Lévy outlined them in turn.
Raise the game on clean and renewable power generation
Lévy said the power sector is heading towards having 85% of EU electricity carbon-neutral by 2030 – but this is not fast enough. He said fast-tracked permitting for renewables – he included nuclear and biomass with wind and solar – and a skilled workforce are essential to ensuring this transition.
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