BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 1
By Leman Zeynalova – Trend:
Complete phase-out of coal fired power generation is expected to take place in Europe after it becomes decarbonized, Siemens Energy Global GmbH & Co. KG told Trend.
Moreover, the company expects the following changes in Europe’s energy mix:
- Renewables will be the dominant source of energy
- Europe will need to import renewables from outside the EU where RES are competitive
- Gas consumption will go down, but gas capacity will increase to provide security of supply.
- For a fully decarbonized energy system fossil gas will eventually need to be replaced by clean hydrogen and other low carbon gases
The EU aims to be climate-neutral by 2050 – an economy with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions. This objective is at the heart of the European Green Deal and in line with the EU’s commitment to global climate action under the Paris Agreement. The European Commission set out its vision for a climate-neutral EU in November 2018, looking at all the key sectors and exploring pathways for the transition.
The Commission's vision covers nearly all EU policies and is in line with the Paris Agreement objective to keep the global temperature increase to well below 2°C and pursue efforts to keep it to 1.5°C.
As part of the European Green Deal, the Commission proposed on 4 March 2020 the first European Climate Law to enshrine the 2050 climate-neutrality target into law.
The EU is well on track to meet its emissions reduction target for 2020 and has put in place legislation to achieve its current 2030 climate and energy targets. Member States have prepared integrated national energy and climate plans to achieve their 2030 targets.
EU greenhouse gas emissions were reduced by 24 percent between 1990 and 2019, while the economy grew by around 60 percent over the same period. From 2018 to 2019, emissions declined by 3.7 percent. The most significant decline was in sectors covered by the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), in particular power plants. Emissions from stationary installations in all countries covered by the system fell sharply by 9.1 percent between 2018 and 2019.
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