Page 16 - EurOil Week 47

EurOil POLICY EurOil

Montenegro remains frontrunner in adopting

EU energy law but Ukraine catches up: EC

EUROPE THE Energy Community (EC) Secretariat has Energy and Climate Plans, followed by Albania,
published its annual implementation report, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Georgia.”
Lagging behind were highlighting which aspiring EU member states The EC is on track to meet its 2020 target for
Bosnia and Georgia, have made the most progress in aligning their energy efficiency, the Secretariat said, and there
although the latter legislation with bloc energy policy. has been a big advance in renewables in the
is the EC’s newest Montenegro remains the frontrunner, the region, with capacity rising by 19% during the
member and made Secretariat said, although Ukraine has jumped reporting period. The driving force has been new
significant progress over ahead of North Macedonia and Serbia, where wind and solar projects.
the reporting period. progress has plateaued, to claim the second place. “Unfortunately, this progress comes too late
Kosovo and Albania also made some pro- in some cases, and North Macedonia, Serbia and
gress, achieving mid-rankings, while reform Ukraine are almost certain to miss their 2020 tar-
in Moldova was modest. Lagging behind were gets,” said the Secretariat deputy director, Dirk
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which had the most Buschle. “Auctions for renewables in Albania
infringement cases, and Georgia, the EC’s new- and North Macedonia achieved prices that are
est member. But despite its low ranking, Georgia much lower than the previous administratively
made some of the most progress during the year. set feed-in tariffs [FiTs], decreasing support
“While there is no doubt that more needs to be costs charged to final consumers. This should be
done in the areas of emissions abatement, energy a motivation for all contracting parties to move
efficiency, sustainable renewables and genuine to market-based support schemes.”
market integration if the Energy Community is Renewables have a major impact, Buschle
to succeed in the clean energy transition, I see the said, calling for serious efforts to be made to
glass as half full,” Secretariat director Janez Kopac implement and enforce environmental impact
commented. “In spite of this year’s challenging legislation properly, especially when it comes to
conditions, several contracting parties managed small-scale hydropower plants (HPPs).
to leap forward.” The Secretariat also noted that all members
Ukraine completed the momentous task of with coal in their energy mixes were struggling
unbundling Europe’s largest gas transmission to comply with the emission ceilings established
system at the end of last year, while Georgia under their National Emission Reduction Plans
adopted key energy efficiency laws, an overarch- for at least one of either nitrogen oxides, sulphur
ing energy law and secondary legislation for the dioxide and dust.
power sector. “This is a worrying trend, as the ceilings
The Secretariat also pointed to progress in cli- get more and more stringent as time goes on,”
mate mitigation, although the EC does not have Buschle said. “It is alarming that Kosovo failed
a hard legal framework for this yet. to comply with the ceilings for all three for the
“Montenegro must be commended for being second year in a row, while Bosnia and Herzego-
the first contracting party to introduce an emis- vina and North Macedonia once again failed to
sions trading scheme, while Moldova was the reach the ceilings for sulphur dioxide and dust,
fourth country in the world to submit its second and Serbia for sulphur dioxide.”
Nationally Determined Contribution under the Southeast Europe has traditionally relied
Paris Agreement to the UNFCCC,” Kopac said. heavily on coal as a source of power, and some of
He added that North Macedonia “led the way the poorer nations have had difficulty shifting to
in the preparation of the integrated National cleaner but costlier forms of generation. ™

P16 www. NEWSBASE .com Week 47 26•November•2020