Renewables, Electrification and Flexibility for a Competitive EU Energy System Transformation by 2030

The European Union is on a pathway to achieve climate neutrality by 2050. This report explores the historic and necessary efforts to align Europe′s electricity, heating and transport systems with transformative EU benchmarks for 2030 to meet that longer-term goal. CO2 emissions have declined significantly in the EU electricity subsystem over the past few decades. This presents an important opportunity to decarbonise rapidly in the near future and to roll out electrification to other sectors, while strengthening energy independence, security and competitiveness for all EU countries. Through accelerated gains in energy and resource efficiency and the alignment of Member States′ efforts within a more coherent EU energy system, the rapid electrification of buildings, transport and industry can greatly reduce Europe′s reliance on foreign fossil fuels and unlock critical progress in heating and transport. Over the past five years, EU policy frameworks for climate mitigation and energy system transformation have become far more coherent and complete. Infrastructure security and resilience have been bolstered through integrated climate and energy planning in tandem with national and cross-border efforts to ensure sound policy implementation. It is now critical that decision-makers translate objectives and priorities for the energy system transition into actionable measures. This includes crafting fiscal strategies to finance key upfront infrastructure investments; distributing the cost of capital proportionally to not overburden taxpayers; aligning taxation, pricing and information signals across the whole energy system; and regularly monitoring and evaluating performance to recalibrate policies when needed.