NGVA Europe: joint letter highlights the need to invest in sustainability
Along with several industry organizations, NGVA Europe unveiled a joint letter to express their strong support for the EU’s response to tackle the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. They urge EU institutions and national governments to continue to support the EU climate neutrality target in 2050 and fully support the recent call by 13 EU climate and environment ministers to place the European Green Deal at the heart of the EU’s recovery plan. This objective, in order to guarantee swift economic recovery, must be underpinned by a targeted development of renewable and decarbonized gas and their uptake, echoed by a smart sector integration approach.
The next step should be that of pairing economic recovery with climate and energy objectives across value chains. This will ensure that whilst industry has proven resilient in supplying energy given the exceptional situation created by COVID-19, Europe can emerge stronger from the current crisis and establish itself as a global leader on clean energy technology manufacturing.
To this end, they support measures which would help swift economic recovery for affected sectors including SMEs. This could include an economic stimulus package which could help the development and deployment of a variety of clean energy technologies. These will be key in achieving the EUs climate objectives in the coming stages of the energy transition and will help maintain existing jobs and create new ones within the EU.
Given that in a climate neutral 2050 gaseous energy will account for a substantial share of final energy use in Europe, the large-scale and rapid decarbonization of gaseous energy must be one of the priorities of the recovery period. Considering the consumption of residential and industrial users alongside heat and power generators, it is particularly important to seize the opportunity provided by Europe’s leadership in innovation and the manufacturing and deployment of these decarbonized and renewable technologies.
Concentrating economic recovery efforts on climate technology sectors where Europe is leading, like hydrogen and biogas, offers Europe the twin benefit of stimulating economic recovery and jobs, as well as contributing to the energy transition. Indeed, these sectors have a predominantly European-based value chain. According to recent studies the gas sector and associated sectors could create up to 5.4 million jobs linked to the production and utilization of renewable and decarbonized gas by 2050.
By maintaining and strengthening Europe’s industrial leadership in gas decarbonization technologies with high efficiency technologies operating alongside, Europe will create new export opportunities for their own climate technology, products and services that will be required worldwide in order to achieve global climate neutrality by 2050.
Any stimulus package should focus on European value chains along with renewable and decarbonization champions and ensure to come through this current crisis with a bright future for European manufacturing of climate technologies with enhanced leadership, job opportunities and the development of new and dynamic markets to accommodate them. The joint letter therefore urges to consider making renewable and decarbonized gases and their efficient use, which provide security of energy supply, a central pillar of the stimulus plan for the post COVID-19 period in Europe.
