EEB Policy Brief on Nature-Positive Renewable Energy

In Europe, the scale of the problem is very similar: in the European Union (EU), as outlined by the European Environmental Agency, energy accounts for 71% of total GHG emissions.3 In the EU, the revision proposal for the Renewable Energy Directive, as outlined in the EEB’s PAC 2.0 Policy Brief on RED III published in February 2022, falls short on what is needed to achieve a complete and successful. [...] In other words, the success of the energy transition will ultimately rely on scaling up renewable energy capacity while at the same time reducing energy and material consumption through increased energy efficiency and sufficiency, and also by means of enhanced circularity in the use of resources and products. [...] As portrayed in a landmark study by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 202116 and in academic literature,17 these impacts are mainly due to the interventions needed in the locations of the projects which often lead to the modification or removal of natural or agro-ecosystems, as well as the disruption of migratory patterns and habitats of vulnerable species by additional. [...] As pointed out in the EEB’s PAC 2.0 Policy Brief on the revision of the Renewable Energy Directive (RED III) 18 and PAC scenario results 19, bioenergy should play a rather marginal role in the future of the energy mix in the EU in a Paris Agreement-compatible scenario. [...] As shown in the PAC scenario results34, for the EU to be in line with the Paris Agreement solid biomass should no longer be used for heating in the residential and tertiary sectors by 2045, while the non-energy share of biomass should be 34 The summary of the results is available here.