After night-long negotiations, the European Parliament and Council have reached an agreement on the Renewable Energy Directive for 2030. At long last, discussions that started in November 2016 came to a close in the early morning of 14 June. The new regulatory framework stipulates that a 32 % renewable energy target is to be achieved by the EU in 2030. “This is a substantial increase compared to the 27 % originally proposed by the European Commission,” said Pedro Dias, Secretary General of Solar Heat Europe/ESTIF. “Moreover, the Commission can now take corrective action if this overall target is not met.”

One of the directive’s most important and heavily debated figures can be found in Article 23, which requires member states to increase their proportion of renewable heat by 1.3 percentage points each year up to 2030. It should be noted that waste heat can contribute up to 40 % to the target.

“Good but not enough,” Brussels-based renewable heating associations stated in a joint press release published on 14 June. One way to look at this important article: It is the first dedicated to heating and cooling in any piece of EU legislation. REDII contains specific references to renewable heating and cooling, which means “it cannot be ignored by member states when they develop their plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Europe,” Dias affirmed.