Once again, the European Commission defined Bulgaria’s “Energy and Climate” plan as unambitious. The first time this happened was during the last government of Boyko Borisov, but the current update of the document, which was supposed to become a fact last summer, but after a number of analyzes and modeling, was submitted only now, also met with sharp criticism.
At the end of last week, the European Commission published its recommendations for the new “Energy and Climate” plan of our country, which must be completed by the end of June 2024. That is, the caretaker government must urgently tackle them, because then there will be no regular cabinet to have.
Brussels is demanding that our country define cost-effective additional policies and measures to reduce carbon emissions, especially for the transport sector and to achieve a 10 percent reduction in 2030 compared to 2005 levels. It also requires a plan to deploy renewable energy in the next 10 years with the recommendation to achieve a share of 45 percent for the share of these sources. An increase in the mandatory targets in heating and cooling by 2030 is also requested.
The Bulgarian government is being asked to say how it will phase out fossil fuels and how it will implement geothermal energy and promote the use of hydrogen in industry.
The lack of stable funding for energy efficiency programs and a clear ambition to decarbonize the building stock is the other flaw of the document submitted to Brussels. Against the background of the greatly delayed conclusion of contracts for the renovation of panels with money from the Recovery and Development Plan, Brussels is asking our country for a timetable for transforming existing buildings into zero-emission buildings by 2050, including intermediate stages for 2030 and 2040
Measures for the additional diversification of gas supplies, as well as information on whether the country is preparing to implement small modular reactors, are among the remaining information requested by the European Commission.
The further development of the approach to tackle energy poverty with an assessment of the households currently affected and a specific target to reduce these people, and another requirement of the European Commission.
Our country must also provide detailed policies and measures for the digitization of the energy system, as well as reforms to mobilize the necessary private investments to achieve the energy and climate goals.
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