EUSEW: Get ready for the 2024 edition!

Panellists will have the opportunity to engage with topics relating to the EU’s clean energy transition, increasing the implementation of technologies with net-zero impact, improving opportunities to develop renewables and energy efficiency, and the need to cooperate globally to enact meaningful climate action.

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Organised by the Covenant of Mayors, the European Energy Award and the Smart Cities Marketplace, this session will present approaches to developing, implementing, and promoting local heating and cooling plans to accelerate the transition towards climate neutrality. 

Indeed, this session will promote different approaches and best practices to manage the heat transition as it is taking place at a moment when member states will have still one year to transpose the Energy Efficiency Directive into national legislation.

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This session will discuss the pivotal role of local renewable energy initiatives in contributing to net zero solutions fostering a just and faster energy transition. This is especially important now that the EU’s dependence on imported energy sources and the implications of this on energy prices have become even more visible in light of the energy crisis.

The session will focus on how the active participation of citizens and local governments in the energy market can be empowered through the implementation of the Clean Energy Package and the Fit for 55 Package provisions for energy communities and be impacted by the revised Electricity Market Design and National Energy and Climate Plans. Aligned with the EUSEW’s overarching theme, special attention will be paid to the integration of the business model of energy communities into the energy market and how they may play a part in delivering a cost-efficient and green energy supply, reducing energy poverty and promoting energy security for all.

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2022 and 2023 were record years for new wind and solar installations but reaching the EU’s 2030 renewable energy target will require further significant scaling-up of the installed capacity. The REPowerEU Plan set in motion legislative and non-legislative initiatives to streamline and accelerate permitting for renewables, and the reforms are bringing results, but more remains to be done.

This session aims to take stock of what has been achieved in the last two years and suggest ways to tackle the remaining challenges. 

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Following the European Parliament’s resolution for a European geothermal energy strategy, representatives of the European Commission, Member States, industry, research institutes and civil society will discuss the challenges, benefits and opportunities for the mass deployment of geothermal to achieve EU climate goals. The challenges to be addressed are: structures to share national actions to increase geothermal investments; effective implementation of newly agreed permitting rules; uptake of innovative business models; skilling the workforce.

The opening section will tackle political issues starting with the main elements of a European geothermal strategy, proposed by the European Parliament’s resolution, which was agreed upon in January 2024. This will be complemented by the views of DG Energy, which set a target to triple geothermal capacity by 2030 and recently revised regulations for renewable energy and energy efficiency to this effect.

The second section will incorporate the needs of project developers and manufacturers as well as civil society, and will also showcase how recent pan-European scientific initiatives can support and inform policy decision-making to accelerate and increase the share of geothermal in the green transition.

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The shift to renewables in the Clean Energy Transition (CET) is key, yet the untapped potential of Energy Demand Reduction (EDR) strategies to enhance it remains. This session explores how EDR can boost also a renewables-driven CET and support the EU’s climate goals.

This session will host one of our members, the City of Grenoble with its Deputy mayor in charge of finance and ecological accounting, litigation, and energy transition, Vincent Fristot.

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