A forward-looking breakfast meeting on Delivering Renewable Energy in Harmony with Nature was hosted by Claude Turmes MEP in the European Parliament, in collaboration with BirdLife Europe and RSPB, on 27thJanuary 2016. The debate was an opportunity to discuss the future of policy support for renewable energy and IEEP presented key findings from our new report on Delivering synergies between delivering renewable energy and nature conservation.
The report is an input into ongoing negotiations between the EU Member States on post 2020 climate and energy policy and highlights how Europe might deploy environmentally responsible renewables. It concludes that without a clear, planned and robust policy framework the predictability and security of renewable energy uptake and environmental benefits are undermined.
There is a strong environmental rationale for accelerating the development and deployment of renewable energy throughout Europe. Unavoidably the scale of expansion in renewable energy needed to decarbonise European energy supply effectively, and the associated grid infrastructure, will have a range of impacts over a considerable area of Europe. However, there are ways of minimising the consequent environmental pressures. The protection of biodiversity needs particular attention given the growing spatial distribution of renewable installations. Plans for the future of the sector should combine incentives to facilitate more rapid renewable energy deployment and ensure that impacts are managed, that renewable energy is sited appropriately, that supporting infrastructure is well conceived, that investors have a secure basis for decisions and that decision-making reflects long-term pathways for climate mitigation.
The future policy framework to determine energy demand and supply in Europe is currently being designed in detail. Targets and governance structures that will determine the nature and ambition of climate and energy action for the 2020 to 2030 period are under development. Now is, therefore, the right time to develop a more robust and finely tuned framework for delivering environmentally positive renewable energy across Europe.
Download below the presentation by Martin Nesbit, IEEP Head of Climate and Governance, at the EP launch event: Synergies between Renewable Energy and Nature Conservation: Messages for policy for 2030 and beyond.
Download BirdLife Europe and RSPB policy briefing on Delivering Renewable Energy in Harmony with Nature.
