EREF Press Release
100% renewable energy as only option under EU 2050 Climate Plan
Brussels, 5 March 2019
Following the first meeting of the European Union’s 28 energy ministers on the European
Commission’s 2050 climate plan on Monday (4 March), EREF President Antonio Sa Dá Costa welcomed the call of the governments of Austria, Ireland, Lithuania, Luxembourg and Spain for a 100% renewable energy scenario for the EU for 2050.
EREF has supported the call for a 100% renewable energy scenario by regularly providing evidence for its feasibility to European decision-makers. Several studies, among others the European Energy Atlas 2018 from the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, demonstrate that a fundamental transformation of Europe’s energy system towards energy efficiency and renewable energy is technically feasible and economically advantageous.
EREF Director Dr. Dörte Fouquet criticises the approach of DG Energy to blindly follow the hype on small nuclear power plants: “These installation have never been built nor projected nor planned, just spoken about. This is becoming a ghost-lead like debate and we must not waste time on it!”
EREF Senior Policy Advisor Dirk Hendricks adds that the nuclear sector failed to provide cheap and safe electricity despite being subsidised for decades. Nuclear energy costs are too expensive and there is no solution for nuclear waste. Prices for renewables have and are however declining providing the only sustainable and economic option for the EU.
EREF calls on EU’s environment ministers today to dismiss the Commission’s first six scenarios and to endorse the only true option for the EU’s future: 100% renewable energy.
For more information on this matter, please contact
Dr. Dörte Fouquet Dirk Hendricks
EREF Director EREF Senior Policy Advisor
doerte.fouquet@eref-europe.org dirk.hendricks@eref-europe.org