The European Net Zero Alliance (ENZA) was launched last month with the involvement of Solar Heat Europe, and its objective is to remove silos and deliver on the EU’s climate and energy objectives. The challenge of decarbonisation requires the use of different solutions to enable the reaching (and hopefully surpassing) of decarbonisation goals. The 2050 horizon for carbon neutrality is relevant but it is important to take into consideration that we are depleting our carbon budget and we need to act quickly, trying to reduce our emissions as soon as possible, reducing to a minimum the dependency on new solutions to tackle hard-to-abate sectors such as aviation or high-temperature industrial processes.

One of the main difficulties of the process is to get all relevant players, often with conflicting interests, cooperating towards the paramount goal of decarbonisation.

It was under this cooperative spirit that ENZA was launched at the end of March 2021. ENZA is a cross-sectoral and cross-vectoral alliance of different associations with a real interest in energy systems integration having the 2050 climate objective at its core.

The launch event of this new Alliance took place on 30 March, under the banner ‘Removing silos will deliver on the EU’s climate and energy objectives’. During the event, the European Commission Directorate-General for Energy’s Primary Adviser, Tudor Constantinescu, welcomed ENZA’s timely creation noting: “Decarbonising the energy system is happening in a market where many solutions coexist – and this complexity will require innovation not only for technology but also policymaking”.

“Systems need to be a lot more flexible but also adaptable and therefore the very concepts of system integration and digitalisation will be crucial.”, Mr. Constantinescu added.

Solar Heat Europe joined ENZA in the spirit of cooperation between different energy vectors and diverse economic sectors. With a policy debate divided between power and gas with hydrogen in between, it is important to bring to the table the relevance of heating and cooling and in particular renewable heating solutions such as solar thermal heat, working together to create the right policy framework.

The recording of the launch event is available online. For more information about ENZA, you can visit ENZA’s website or check its launch paper and concept note. For more details and information on Solar Heat Europe’s involvement in ENZA you can contact our Secretariat at info@solarheateurope.eu.