When the European Commission published AccelerateEU, it showed that the powers they be *got it*. Yet, now we seem to be headed towards a completely unforced own goal. Together with almost two dozen signatories, Clean Heat Europe supported this open letter to EU Commission Secretary-General Ilze Juhansone. For over a year now, Europe's clean heat sector has eagerly anticipated the publication of two complementary documents from the European Commission: the Electrification Action Plan and the Heating & Cooling Strategy. The documents would cover different, though conjoined, elements of Europe's energy transition. Now, it seems like the H&C Strategy might end up not even seeing the light of day. Instead, it's possible that it gets scrapped, and parts of its content gets tacked onto the Electrification Action Plan. That would be a disservice to the quality and focus of both documents, and detrimental to Europe's energy independence efforts. Heating & cooling is half of Europe's energy consumption, and represents an even larger share of households' energy use. Households still also rely predominantly on fossil fuels to keep warm. It's a given that this sector, which can boast a number of electrified and non-electrified clean solutions, should receive more dedicated support than to be relegated to an annex of the Electrification Action Plan. The most jarring part of this development is that it is entirely arbitrary. There is no need to do this. It wouldn't make the policy landscape tidier, or easier to navigate. It would simply take two long-awaited deliverables, and stick them together, weakening the focus and efficacy of both. Check out the full letter here: https://lnkd.in/eMSQKvvr
Joel Boehme there is a clear pattern happening globally on this issue and it coordinated by the vested Oil and Gas industry. This is the pattern. Let those promoting renewable heat and cooling get enthusiastic when we see a gap or a major economic signal. Net zero, Covid, Ukraine, Hormuz...Everyone pulls together and then just at the last minute the encumbents lobbyist hit top gear and shred any resemblance of the original working plan. The O&G sector are particularly aggressive about preserving this market as it competes directly against its own products. They were content with renewable electricity because they saw a growth opportunity in pushing out coal. What we see now in markets that have reached Peak Gas penetration is a well orgastrated campaign to suppress further growth in renewables. The Western Australian market is a classic demonstration of this. We are in a Gas entrenchment phase and delay phase. All priorities are been given to invest and underwrite more gas generation
Carlos Xavier Emanuele Valérie Séjourné Tom Vasseur Loïc Delorme Bianca Bittencourt