Repower EU has three major goals to achieve to protect citizens and businesses of European Union from shortage of energy products: saving energy, increasing clean energy production and diversifying energy supplies away from Russia. In 2021, 45% of fossil gas imports come from Russia; by 2025 this had dropped to 3%. Demand for gas also decreased from 45% in 2021 but in 2024 the import of gas has decreased to 19%. Furthermore, European Union used to fulfill its demand of coal more than 50% of its total consumpation from Russia in 2021 but now its almost zero, there is no export of coal from Russia anymore.https://commission.europa.eu/topics/energy/repowereu_en[2]
Background
After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the European Union set out to stop fossil fuel imports from Russia. The European Union imposed sanctions on coal and oil, but did not immediately do this for gas, as it was highly dependent for that fuel on Russia. At the same time, Russia threatened to stop or cut off Europe's supply of fossil fuels.[3] The rise in prices of energy products in the European Union rose sharply after the invasion.[4]
Gas security is a combined responsibility of Member States and the commission, but the sudden phase out of Russian gas, created a supply crisis, which triggered the availability and affordability crisis in the market.[5] The REpowerEU plan aims to establish new pipeline agreements and secure critical raw materials necessary for renewable technologies.[6]
Policy
The REPowerEU has three major goals:
Save energy
Diversify energy supplies away from Russia
Accelerate the deployment of green energy
Save energy
REPower EU sought short-term energy savings via an information campaign and prepared material for other institutions to do the same.[7] The proposed Fit for 55 package had initially targeted a 9% reduction in final energy use by 2030. The REPowerEU proposal updated this to 13%, but the final adopted "Energy Efficiency Directive" had a 11.7% reduction. [8]
Diversify Energy Supplies
In 2021, almost 45% of European Union's aggregate demand was covered by Russian products, remaining part was imported from the rest of the world.[9] By 2023, this ratio has decreased dramatically to 15%, which shows the commitment of the European Commission to reduce the dependency of Europe on Russia.[10] In April 2023, the European Commission launched an aggregate demand and supply programme to meet the total demand of EU's 27 member states. This plan will enable the European Union to create interconnection with the United Kingdom, Western Balkan and North African countries to find alternative energy sources, including a liquefied natural gas (LNG) and renewable energy agreement.[11] In October 2023, the European Commission agreed on legislation to increase the share of renewable energy in the Euro zone, so target has been set for 45% to get energy from renewable sources e.g Solar PV and Wind mills.[12]
Clean energy
REPower EU aim to increase clean energy sources. As part of this, it set the goal to double solar PV capacity by 2025 and have 600 GW by 2030.[13] By adopting renewable energy sources demand of natural gas (LNG) has decreased by 38% between the period of 2021-2024.[14]New rules were introduced to make solar panels mandatory for new buildings. A doubling in the deployment rate of heat pumps, which use electricity rather than gas to heat houses, was also agreed. Other goals related to the speed of permitting, biomethane usage and green hydrogen.[15] In October, the EU agreed to increase its ambition for renewables from 40% in 2030 to 42.5%, and strive to 45%.[16]
Funding
The European Commission estimated that between 2022 and 2027, an additional €210 billion was needed to fund REPowerEU. In comparison, the fossil fuel imports from Russia had been over €100 billion each year. The main funding came from the "Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF), which is the EU stimulus package for economic recovery after the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] Additional funding comes from selling some permits under the EU Emissions Tradings System earlier than planned, and by using money from the Innovation Fund.[18] In total $648 billion to be invested in this program to minimise import from Russia, where as 42% of this amount is going to be invest in the green energy project in all 27 countries, in the same way 1/4 of this total budget will be consume for all energy projects.[19]
Next Steps
Since this project was started in 2022, European Union has met most of the goals successfully, and is now on track to eliminate fossil fuel imports from Russia while heading towards the green energy resources. [20]
↑ Joëlle Elvinger. "Special report 09/2024: Security of the supply of gas in the EU". European Court of Auditors
↑ Taydaş, Anıl Ömer (24 August 2024). [Anıl, Ömer, Taydaş. (2024). 1. REPowerEU as a Crisis Response: Immediate Diversification and Green Transition. Ekonomi, işletme ve maliye araştırmaları dergisi, doi: 10.38009/ekimad.1502909 "REPowerEU as a Crisis Response: Immediate Diversification and Green Transition"]. Ekonomi İşletme ve Maliye Araştırmaları Dergisi. 6 (Özel Sayı 1): 79–86. doi:10.38009/ekimad.1502909. ISSN 2667-503X.
↑ Banas, Dmytro; Melnyk, Tetiana (1 July 2024). [Daniel, A., Banas., Tetiana, Melnyk. (2024). 2. Transformacja sektora energetycznego Unii Europejskiej. Problemy Ekorozwoju, doi: 10.35784/preko.6015 "The Transformation of the European Union's Energy Sector"]. Problemy Ekorozwoju. 19 (2): 293–308
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