Friday, 02 September 2022
In a press release yesterday (1 September 2022), the Energy Community Ministerial Council announced its expectations to adopt 2030 energy and climate targets on 15 December 2022 in Vienna under the presidency-in-office of Ukraine.
The Ministerial Council represents the governments of the Parties to the Energy Community Treaty and as such is the highest decision-making body of the Secretariat. The Energy Community Secretariat was established in 2006 with the key objective of extending the EU's internal energy market rules and principles to countries in South-eastern Europe, the Black Sea region, and beyond to create an integrated pan-European energy market.
Aligning with the EU’s 2050 climate neutrality goals has been the underlying driver behind the Energy Community’s adoption of its ambitious 2030 targets. A cap on the total greenhouse gas emissions for the Energy Community at 427.64 MtCO2eq by 2030 is expected to be adopted and this represents a decrease of 60.9% compared to 1990 levels.
In terms of renewables, the Energy Community is expected to set an overall target of 31% renewable energy share in the gross final energy consumption by 2030. This is close to the EU's overall target of at least 32% however, this is subject to revision by the European Commission in 2023.
Finally, in an effort to boost energy efficiency, an energy savings cap on the amount of primary energy consumption will be introduced, at 129.88 Mtoe and a 79.07 Mtoe cap on final energy consumption.
Albania, Moldova and Montenegro all overachieved their national 2020 targets under the 2009 Renewables Directive with the remaining countries deviating only slightly from their goals. The expansion of wind and solar technologies was attributed as the main reason behind these achievements in a mostly coal-dominated electricity mix.
The adoption of 2030 renewable energy targets amongst the Energy Community's Contracting parties will likely prompt further investment and the accelerated expansion of renewables in those markets.
As plans are set to expand renewable energy sources within the power mixes of Contracting Parties, reliable tracking systems such as Guarantees of Origin will be required. Under a regional project launched by the Energy Community Secretariat in January 2022, electronic registries for Guarantees of Origin have already been created for the following countries:
According to the Energy Community, all nine registries are prepared to go live once direct agreements between the Contracting Parties' issuing bodies have been signed with the service provider Grexel. Once these agreements have been settled Contracting Parties will be able to trade GOs through the regional system established by Grexel.
While the first phase of GO market trading will occur on a regional level the aim is to eventually expand to the rest of Europe. However, all eight countries will have to apply for membership to the Association of Issuing Bodies (AIB) who develop and run the European Energy Certificate System (EECS).
As more Contracting parties expand renewable generation, implement GO systems and possibly join the AIB this could translate into newer GO volumes and demand entering the market.