Repowering Europe & Delivering Clean Energy Resilience - Manifesto for the 2024-2029

Our Vision  

Europe is currently facing several challenges that will impact tomorrow’s energy system and European society overall. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent energy blackmail have led to an energy crisis on a scale not seen since the 1970s. We have also seen first indications of significant deindustrialisation. Wider geopolitical tensions threaten supply chains for secure energy today and into the future. This is happening as the climate crisis deepens, making the energy trilemma of affordable, secure and sustainable energy a growing challenge that Europe’s policymakers will have to address in the next legislative term.  

A key part of Europe’s answer to this challenge lies in direct electrification supported by a strong, integrated market. Clean and renewable electricity produced in Europe will cut emissions while putting us on track to energy independence. New, directly electrified solutions will empower customers to save energy and make more affordable decisions that decarbonise their transportation and heating needs. Meanwhile, around 3 million European jobs will be created to deliver this energy transformation, as we highlighted with our partners in the Electrification Alliance, leading to new economic opportunities for the next generation.

But this clean, energy independent future depends on delivering decarbonisation, and therefore on accelerating clean and renewable electrification this decade, the electric decade. For the past 15 years, electrification has stagnated at less than ¼ of Europe’s energy use. This means we still rely on fossil fuels for a huge majority of our energy needs.

Accelerating electrification with clean and renewable electricity must therefore become a core objective of European climate and energy policy in the next legislative term. To tackle climate change, the energy transition is a no-regret option: it will bring several benefits and is today the least cost option for society. The challenge for the upcoming mandate will be to deliver the needed investments while ensuring affordability for consumers.  

Electricity consumption is expected to increase by about 60% between now and 2030. We must not underestimate the industrial and commercial opportunities the transition offers to Europe in terms of industrial capacity, jobs and growth, either. Additionally, widespread electrification of end-uses will contribute to lowering household energy consumption thanks to the enhanced efficiency of electric devices compared to conventional thermal equipment. Nonetheless, all this can only be done in a strong, cohesive European Union with a functional internal market. 

In the next section, we outline five priority areas which new policymakers should focus on to achieve this.

 

Our 5 key priorities for the next Commission 

1. “Implementation, implementation, implementation”: implement what has been agreed in the previous mandates 

With numerous targets for decarbonisation having been set over the past five years for 2030, the incoming mandate at the European level will preside over the Union until just before these targets are due. Simply put, we need to double down on the implementation process of the necessary legislation to ensure we reach emissions reductions of 55% by 2030.  

While most of the attention is directed at the drafting procedure, the targets agreed in the adopted packages must now be achieved to unleash necessary investments. This involves ensuring that the already agreed directives and regulations to achieve climate neutrality are adopted nationally in a timely manner to facilitate long-term planning certainty. The ambition is clear – a 55% reduction by 2030 – we now need to deliver. There is a clear need for speed.  

We ask policymakers to:  

• Launch appropriate assessment and adjustment rounds of the implemented policies, in particular the Clean Energy and Fit for 55 Packages, and include them in the State of the Energy Union reports.
• Monitor progress and support Member States to meet their targets through close cooperation in the implementation of national energy and climate plans (NECPs).
• Avoid unnecessary changes of recently adopted energy legislation. If any new proposal should be presented, it should be preceded by a thorough impact assessment and the works must be conducted in line with the principles of better regulation.

2. Electrification for decarbonisation: increase the rate of electrification

Electricity makes up only 23% of all the energy consumed in Europe. This means that while we are working hard to decarbonise electricity, large parts of the economy are still running on fossil fuels. If we are to have any hope of achieving our climate and energy policy, we need to ramp up electrification as quickly as possible. This electrification choice is also a no regret option for energy efficiency. Deploying heat pumps, for instance, could reduce energy demand by 2/3rds.

All modelling shows the rate of electrification will need to reach around 50-70% by 2050 for Europe to reach climate neutrality, according to our Decarbonisation Speedways study. In the medium term, to achieve our REPowerEU ambitions, we need to already reach 35% by 2030. Europe must set both the right milestones and a clear plan to deliver that trajectory. 

We ask policymakers to: 

• Publish an Electrification Action plan the first 100 days of the coming mandate. This should set an indicative target of 35% electrification of final energy use across the EU by 2030. In addition, an electrification indicator in the National Energy and Climate Plans to monitor and deliver progress should be introduced. 
• Continue efforts to relieve the electricity price of taxes and levies to create favourable economic conditions for consumers to switch from more polluting energy carriers.

3. Security of supply: accelerate renewable and clean power supply while addressing challenges of the new energy system

The energy crisis experienced in 2021-2022 materialised in high electricity prices for European consumers. This, together with its related impacts on industrial production have shaped a new political and regulatory landscape whilst raising awareness on the need to foster EU strategic autonomy.

On one side, REPowerEU, and lately EU legislation on electricity market design and the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA), have aimed at mitigating these challenges. On the other side, the energy crises also created the opportunity to fast-track the needed homegrown net-zero power supply. Europe’s industry and energy system have the opportunity to become more resilient and less exposed to external supply shocks.

We ask policymakers to:  

• Revise the energy security strategy, which turns 10 years old in 2024, and map out the key risks and vulnerabilities to the energy supply chains.
• Further strengthen and deepen the internal energy market and provide a favourable, predictable and technology neutral investment environment for all assets needed to achieve the EU’s net zero ambition.
• Ensure that clean and renewable energy is properly integrated into the system.

4. A new power infrastructure deal: driving the expansion and digitalisation of electricity grids 

There is no green future for Europe without an upgraded power grid. By 2030, over 80% of additional renewable electricity will be connected at the distribution level. Distribution grids are the backbone of the digital and energy transitions, ensuring a continuous and reliable electricity flow. However, Europe’s distribution grids today are ageing with low or no capacity reserves. We need to urgently invest in grids to be fit-for-purpose in an increasingly decarbonised, decentralised and digitalised power system. 

We ask policymakers to: 

• Propose a bold new political project – ‘the power infrastructure deal’. The deal should employ innovative regulatory principles reflective of the changing framework and investment conditions and enable anticipatory buildout of electricity infrastructure.

5. Consumers: Empower a transition serving all consumers 

70% of the benefits of the energy transition depend on consumer action, yet only 30% are engaged. The energy transition should ensure that all customers, from energy-intensives to domestic consumers, can use and afford sustainable energy. The energy crisis revealed the ability and willingness of these customers to quickly adapt their consumption to be much more efficient. Innovation and flexibility in supply offers made this possible. We need to act now to remove key consumer barriers, engage consumers and transform their experience.

We ask policymakers to: 

• Promote consumer participation and protection in the transition through innovation-based competition and digital technologies
• Monitor the distributional effects of carbon pricing and support Member States to enact flanking measures that support consumer uptake of affordable electric solutions.
• Encourage partnerships and cost-competitive collaboration with EU industrialists to enable them to remain globally competitive.