2024-08-14 06:30:13
On 30 June 2024, EU Member States were due to submit the final version of their National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs), following the commitments of the Paris Agreement and Fit-for-55. However, most countries, including France, have fallen behind schedule, which may delay the achievement of the EU’s climate and energy targets.
THE PNEC The final targets of each Member State must enable the EU to achieve its objectives by 2030:
For its part, France sent its own[1] on July 10, 10 days late. Furthermore, it will not have escaped anyone’s notice that France is experiencing a particularly tense political situation that has disrupted the work in progress and delayed the sending of the PNEC.
PNECs that are late or not fully compliant
France is not the only country to have fallen behind. Last year, only 16 countries had met the deadline of 30 June 2023 for sending the first versions of their PNECs and only 5 had met the deadline of 30 June 2024 for sending the final versions. By 31 July 2024, only a third of Member States had thus provided a final version : Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden.
But beyond the missed deadlines, there are also real underlying problems, since at the end of 2023, the The Commission noted, for example, « that virtually no country had integrated multilateral dialogues into the process of drafting the PNECs.
Because the PNECs are not simple reports: they were designed with the aim of building consensus in the Member States on the means to be implemented to meet ambitious climate objectives. However, only a continuous dialogue between States and local authorities, civil society, businesses, investors and the general public will allow this consensus to emerge.
A disagreement in the background between France and the European Commission on the subject of nuclear power
In November 2023, France had already sent a first version of its PNEC, again late, but this did not fit in with the requirements of the European treaties regarding the inclusion of “renewable energy” objectives.
In December, 11 EU Member Statesincluding France, had then requested that the next revision of the directive on the deployment of renewable energies become a “low-carbon” directive which would therefore integrate nuclear power as a decarbonization solution. A request which also coincided with the historic recognition of nuclear power at COP28.
There is still time to get back on track and meet the 2030 targets
According to a recent study by Transport & Environment12 EU countries will fail to meet their national climate targets, as things stand. To reach this conclusion, the study relied on the versions of the PNECs updated in June 2023. The countries in the most difficulty would be Germany and Italy. The Belgium also seems to be off to a bad startas well as many Central and Eastern European states, including the lack of ambition of the PNEC is denounced by certain NGOs.
But it is not too late to get things back on track and the PNECs are precisely one of the tools that will enable the implementation of policies capable of achieving these objectives. Let us hope that the final versions of the PNECs still awaited will be up to the challenge.
[1] The bravest will have something to read, since the document is over 300 pages long !
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