Luxembourg, (EFE) clean generation to accelerate the transition towards a decarbonised economy.
The agreement, which updates the current legal objective of 32%, is based on a political negotiation closed in March and is not yet final, since it will also have to be validated by the European Parliament, including the last touches introduced by the countries.
France and Germany the main problem of the agreement
But the main stumbling block has been overcome: the struggle between France and Germany within the Council of the EU, countries between which sparks continue to fly even after consensus.
The German Secretary of State for Economy and Climate Action, Sven Giegold, has pointed out on social networks that the adoption of the agreement on Friday in the Council “has been delayed for months because France wanted to equate the hydrogen generated with nuclear to renewable. This has failed.”
“For our European partners, the agreement now means expanding renewables with the same consistency with which we are doing successfully in Germany. France in particular will have to invest heavily in renewables,” he added.
France’s response was immediate: “Dear Sven, France in 2022 produced more renewable energy than Germany, with a final consumption of 20.7% against 20.4%. And in Germany, coal is more than 30% of electricity production, against 0.6% in France, ”the French Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, responded on Twitter this Sunday.
The pact comes after months of discussions with two blocs: Paris, on the one hand, demanding greater recognition of nuclear energy, with the support of a dozen member states such as Finland, Slovenia or Romania; and Berlin, on the other, trying to move atomic energy away from renewable energy legislation, with countries like Spain or Luxembourg behind.
The group of Germany and Spain wanted to raise that threshold to 45% and France advocated leaving it at 40%. But the great challenge lies in the application of these objectives with binding trajectories in transport, heating and, above all, industry, where green hydrogen will come into play in the future to replace natural gas.
“green” hydrogen
The anti-nuclear bloc did not want hydrogen produced from atomic energy to be considered “green”, but to reserve that category only for that resulting from electrolysis with renewable generation sources, such as photovoltaics or wind.
“The fundamental issue is nuclear. Those who have an ‘energy mix’ with nuclear see other rates of incorporation towards the objective of 42.5% in 2030. The objective is shared by the whole world, but not the trajectories”, summarized a diplomatic source.
Finally, the ambassadors to the EU of Twenty-seven reached an agreement on Friday on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) that achieved a balance between the positions of France and Germany and represents an unprecedented increase in commitment to these clean sources. .
Strong effort in the coming years
The effort that the Twenty-seven will have to make between now and 2030 is equivalent to installing 17 soccer fields with photovoltaic panels every day, plus 16 wind turbines on land and another 4 in the sea, according to the analogy used by Giegold.
To reach the agreement, France accepted a more ambitious scale (45 instead of 40%, of which 42.5% are mandatory and 2.5% indicative) but obtained in exchange a declaration from the European Commission underlining the importance of the nuclear energy in decarbonization and a derogation for its ammonia industry, a commitment that for Germany “is not pretty, but it is manageable.”
This is an essential sector in the production of agricultural fertilizers that depends on gas flaring and where it would be very expensive to adapt production to green hydrogen, so other decarbonization efforts will be validated “case by case”, that is, with atomic Energy.
The agreement is closely related to two files that the energy and environment ministers of the EU countries will negotiate this Monday and this Tuesday in Luxembourg.
The first is the reform of the electricity market, which seeks to deliver affordable prices in the long term over time but with attractive signs of profitability to encourage investment in renewables. The countries will try to fix their position on Monday.
The second is the Law for the Restoration of Nature, which will be discussed on Tuesday with the aim of striking a balance between the protection of nature and the accelerated deployment of renewables.