EP Approves Legislation to Increase Renewables Use

By Lynn L. Bergeson and Carla N. Hutton
 
The European Parliament (EP) voted on September 14, 2022, to increase the share of renewables in the European Union’s (EU) final energy consumption to 45 percent by 2030, under the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED), a target also backed by the European Commission (EC) under its “RepowerEU” package. According to the EP’s September 14, 2022, press release, the legislation also defines subtargets for sectors such as transport, buildings, and district heating and cooling. The press release states that in the transport sector, deploying renewables should lead to a 16 percent reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, through the use of higher shares of advanced biofuels and a more ambitious quota for renewable fuels of non-biological origin, such as hydrogen. Industry should boost its use of renewables by 1.9 percentage points per year, and district heating networks by 2.3 points. The text was adopted by a vote of 418 to 109, with 111 abstentions.