{"id":22587,"date":"2020-07-03T14:26:29","date_gmt":"2020-07-03T11:26:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/euea-energyagency.org\/?p=22587"},"modified":"2020-07-03T14:38:11","modified_gmt":"2020-07-03T11:38:11","slug":"designing-stimulus-packages-for-a-cleaner-energy-future","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/euea-energyagency.org\/en\/news\/market-news\/designing-stimulus-packages-for-a-cleaner-energy-future\/","title":{"rendered":"Designing stimulus packages for a cleaner energy future"},"content":{"rendered":"

Global energy-related CO2\u00a0emissions are expected to reduce by 8% in 2020, the largest contraction since the World War II. But that will not be anything to celebrate. What matters is putting emissions into structural decline. While renewable electricity should show stronger resilience compared to other fuels, new capacity growth is also expected to slow in 2020, after record deployment last year. Putting emissions into a structural decline needed renewables to grow much faster across all sectors even before the Covid-19 crisis. To regain and exceed the growth rates seen in the years before the pandemic, policy makers need to put clean energy \u2013 including renewables and energy efficiency \u2013\u00a0<\/span>at the centre of recovery efforts.<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

Reflecting a rapidly changing public health crisis, initial government rescue packages have focused on sustaining livelihoods and minimising economic damage through immediate relief for individuals, families and businesses. In the current and next phases of easing lockdown restrictions, stimulus packages may focus on global economic recovery. Experience shows that the economic recovery after the last financial crisis resulted in significant growth in CO2\u00a0emissions: in 2010\u00a0<\/span>global CO2\u00a0emissions<\/span><\/a>\u00a0saw the largest increase ever recorded \u2013 four times the drop in emissions the year before. To mitigate the increase in CO2\u00a0emissions in the recovery from the current crisis, governments should put clean energy transitions at the heart of their stimulus packages.<\/span><\/p>\n

Governments should consider three main policy strategies:<\/span><\/p>\n

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  1. Ensuring policy predictability and reassuring investors about their energy and climate commitments by confirming ambitious targets and objectives, including providing visibility on forthcoming capacities to be auctioned in the power sector. This is key to enabling industry and businesses to plan in advance and establish smooth project pipelines.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Reducing administrative barriers to renewable project development and corporate sourcing of renewable energy by streamlining permitting and other administrative procedures.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Including renewables in stimulus packages. The priority should be on those sectors and project categories that offer early opportunities for job creation and economic recovery, take stock of the lessons of the past, and can lead to structural benefits in the form of highly efficient and resilient energy systems with lower associated greenhouse gas emissions. Expanding the scope of and budget for existing support schemes that have already worked offers an avenue to delivering quicker results.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Priority areas for action could include:<\/span><\/p>\n