The European Commission is championing renewable and nuclear energy as safeguards against future shocks from global conflicts such as Iran — even as critics warn it has spent the past year hollowing out ambitions of the Green Deal.
“Our objective is very clear. We required to scale up the homegrown, affordable, reliable energy,” declared European Commission president Ursula Von der Leyen on Monday (13 April).
She highlighted the required for compact modular reactors (SMRs), which she described as a promising technology currently drawing research and investment interests in the United States, China, UK, Japan and Canada.
“You have the SMRs and you have the renewables. That is the way to go forward,” she declared.
The comments came on the back of the US-led conflict in Iran that has engulfed the region in war, while placing a chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz where goods and fossil fuels pass through to reach global markets primarily in Asia.
But the impact has also been felt in Europe with a €22bn increase in fossil-fuel imports since the launch of the war 44 days ago.
“This displays the enormous impact this crisis has on our economy, even if the hostility ceased immediately,” she declared, adding that Europe is paying a high price for its over depconcludeency on fossil fuels.
Von der Leyen declared the only lasting way out of fossil fuel depconcludeency is to modernise by shifting electricity generation to renewables and nuclear.
She declared they both account for over 70 percent of Europe’s electricity generation, noting however that huge volumes of clean power remain unapplyd and wasted.
“What we required is storage. We required flexibility. We required to accelerate the grid connections and to improve this overall situation,” she declared urging EU member states to rapid-track approval of the electricity grid modernisation legislation introduced last December.
The proposal, designed to bolster renewable energy integration, was initially scheduled for adoption by the conclude of the year, but she now wants it agreed among the co-legislators by this summer.
The Brussels-executive is hoping that EU states will listen as they gather for a leadership meeting next week (23-24 April) in Cyprus, which is currently steering the EU’s rotating six-month presidency.
Families, gas storage, oil reserves and income support
The plan will outline a set of recommconcludeations for EU member states aimed at dampening the economic fallout from Iran’s crisis, particularly for European hoapplyholds already hit by rising prices and shrinking budobtains.
Among the measures are proposals for coordinated gas storage and the joint release of oil reserves, steps intconcludeed to stabilise energy supply and prices across the bloc.
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