What legislative framework for cities to phase-out natural gas and avoid gas stranded assets?

This interactive workshop will allow you to share your situation, concerns and interests, to build the programme of future workshops.

Context

The EU consumption of natural gas has dropped by 17.7% in the period August 2022-March 2023 compared to past years, according to Eurostat. This needed decline of gas consumption threatens the economic model of the gas network, which is threefold: the cost is mostly composed of past investments, the adaptation of the network has a lot of inertia, and the revenues streams depend mostly on the volume of gas consumption. Without a thorough planning and the evolution of legislative and financial frameworks, these three factors will most probably lead to stranded assets or a very steep increase of gas distribution costs for the remaining customers.

The webinar

During this session, we will take stock of what happened during last winter, but also reflect on which changes are needed to decarbonise heating and cooling supply on the long-term. The Decarb City Pipes 2050 EU-funded project will share its policy propositions for EU- and national-frameworks based on the on-the-ground experience gathered by six cities in developing decarbonisation roadmaps for their heating and cooling sectors. It will inform the propositions of the EU institutions for the on-going discussions on the revision of the gas market directive and regulation.

We will also share some insights on new rules for gas network planning to avoid stranded assetsand accelerate gas phase-out, based on a recent study published in Germany. Without change of legislation, Agora Energiewende evaluates the risk of stranded assets to more than 10 billion € and a possible increase of gas distribution costs for consumers by 9 to 16 until 2045.

Provisional agenda

• Welcome – Julien Joubert, Energy Cities
• Legislative barriers and solutions to unlock city heating and cooling strategies – Learnings from Decarb City Pipes 2050. Mag. Michael Cerveny, Senior Expert, Urban Innovation Vienna
• Which risk of stranded assets? How to avoid it? – The case of Germany. Dr. Barbara Saerbeck, Senior Associate, Agora Energiewende
• Exchanges on participants’ situations and expectations

This event is organised with the financial support of the European Climate Foundation.

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