Introduction: Renewable Energy in Europe

Renewable energy (sources) or RES are a diverse group of technologies that capture their energy from existing flows of energy, from on-going natural processes, such as sunshine, wind, flowing water, biological processes, and geothermal heat flows. Neither fossil fuels nor nuclear power are renewable forms of energy.

CAN-Europe’s View

The global energy challenge of our time is to tackle the threat of climate change, meet the rising demand for energy and to safeguard security of energy supplies. Renewable energy are effective energy technologies that are ready for global deployment today on a scale that can help tackle these problems.

Increasing our use of renewable energy reduces Carbon Dioxide emissions; cuts local air pollution; creates high-value jobs; curbs our growing dependence on imports of fossil energy (which often come from politically unstable regions) and prevents us being hostage to finite energy resources.

Renewable energy sources are expected to be economically competitive as their costs already have fallen significantly compared with conventional energy sources in the medium term especially if the massive subsidies to nuclear and fossil forms of energy are phased out. Finally, new renewable energy sources offer huge benefits to developing countries, especially in the provision of energy services to the estimated 2 billion people who currently lack them.

CAN-Europe believes that the EU has a key role to play in the development and promotion of renewable energy sources. At present it is the market leader for most renewable energy technologies, most notably wind energy.

But renewable energy sources need to be vigorously promoted if they are to deliver their benefits as fast as is needed. At the moment the EU’s member states have a variety of promotion mechanisms. The EU institutions need to support these and to let the most effective of these work. At present, conventional energy sources are obscenely over-subsidised, and these perverse subsidies must be phased out. Support for renewable energy sources in the meantime merely compensates in part for these market distortions. The EU also needs to put renewables at the heart of its broader spending programmes – trans-European networks, structural funds, Euromed, co-operation with non-EU Europe and many more. Currently these disproportionately support conventional energy.

Internationally, the EU must set an example by committing itself to longer-term targets, starting with a target for 2020. These targets must be matched with clear policy and funding frameworks for meeting them. Finally, the EU must engage with international partners to create a global framework for promoting renewable energy sources.