EU Commission: war in Ukraine. Von der Leyen, “energy savings, less fossil fuels, renewables”. Solar panels on commercial and public buildings

(Brussels) “We can replace Russian fossil fuels by working on three levels: on the demand side, saving energy; on the supply side, diversifying our energy imports away from fossil fuels; and accelerating the clean energy transition”, European Commission President, Ursula von der Leyen, said at a press conference in Brussels today. “We have already embarked on a transformation of our energy system to become climate neutral – our famous European Green Deal. And this was already ambitious. But today, we are taking our ambition to yet another level to make sure that we become independent from Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible. This is REPowerEU”. This “will help us to save more energy, accelerate the phasing out of fossil fuels and kick-start investments on a new scale”. According to Von der Leyen, energy savings “are the quickest and cheapest way to address the current energy crisis. We will therefore increase the EU energy efficiency target for 2030 from 9% to 13%. And we are increasing the 2030 target for EU renewable energy from 40% to 45%”. The President then listed a series of initiatives to “scale up and speed up the clean energy transition”. For example, by proposing “a solar rooftop obligation for commercial and public buildings by 2025 and for new residential buildings by 2029”. A goal that the President herself called “ambitious but realistic”.
Valentina Bombelli