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30 I Companies & Markets bne September 2022
Furthermore, the 1.5C-aligned capacity expansion pathways should also be transposed into the updated National Energy and Climate Plans (NECPs) during the formal review process in 2023.
At a national level, auction volumes should be significantly increased to capacities in line with 2030 targets.
Renewable energy ‘go-to’ areas, taking into account environmental and social concerns, should be designated as suggested in REPowerEU where permit granting should not exceed one year. Finally, permitting processes should
be streamlined through investments in personnel and digitalisation to ensure they are compliant with the two-year limit.
Slow wind and solar deployment will only exacerbate the current cost and security crisis the EU’s energy sector is facing.
Rapid expansion of these technologies will help the EU to replace expensive and uncertain fossil fuel imports with clean and secure sources of energy, whilst also reducing electricity prices.
Czech government remains colour blind on green issues
Robert Anderson in Prague, and Albin Sybera
The Czech government has a huge blindspot on green issues – one that could hamper its current presidency of the European Union, as well as prevent it from tackling some of the country’s biggest problems, such as
its dependency on Russian energy, soaring energy bills, worsening environmental problems, and its stuttering economic model.
Since taking over the rotating presidency on July 1, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala has been presiding over two key EU goals – to move towards a sustainable economic model and to cut off Russian energy imports following its invasion of Ukraine.
In theory, the two goals should reinforce each other: the drive to cut dependence on Russian fossil fuels should help the goal of moving towards green energy in order to mitigate climate change, but there is also pressure from some member states to relax the EU’s green policies because of the surge in energy prices, sparked by Russia’s invasion.
The Czech government, which only took office just before Christmas, will struggle to play an honest broker in this debate because the neoliberal Civic Democrats (ODS), who hold both the posts of prime minister and finance minister, remain highly sceptical of efforts to mitigate climate change by promoting green energy and e-mobility – as well of the EU itself.
Fiala even recently campaigned to reopen the debate on the EU Green Deal, telling a TV debate before the November general election that the next government "needs to reject" the EU‘s plan to stop the production of cars with combustion engines.
But the ODS' worst instincts are restrained by the other four parties in the centre-right coalition, with the liberal
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Pirate party in particular having a very different stance on green issues.
The coalition agreement is a compromise that gives with one hand while taking away with the other. "We are taking seriously upcoming energy transformation to renewable sources, but we refuse to give up on energy security, self- sustainability and independence," the programme states.
On the Green Deal it warns: "In negotiating concrete measures the Czech cabinet will take into account the possible social impact and specific conditions in the Czech Republic."
Recently Fiala has taken a more pragmatic approach, posting on Facebook in May: “The Green Deal is a reality now. There is no point in discussing what could have been done differently. Now we have to use the opportunity to modernise the Czech economy through investments into renewables, the circular economy and to raise the quality of life in Czechia."
In Brussels, the government appears to want to refocus its presidency on energy security rather than green energy,
a shift made more credible by the urgency of the task of reducing the bloc‘s dependence on Moscow.
The Czech government has little freedom of movement in the green debate but it could effect a change of emphasis or maybe even a change of timetable, Zdenek Beranek, foreign policy advisor for Marketa Pekarova, speaker of the lower house and leader of the coalition TOPO9 party, told bne IntelliNews. “It’s not realistic for the Czech Republic to oppose the process but we will open the debate on what to do with the regions that are very dependent on the auto industry [such as the Czech Republic]," he says.