Meeting the EU’s climate goals will require substantial financial investments. We therefore fully endorse the efforts of the European Commission to support public and private investments, especially through the review of the Climate, Energy and Environmental State Aid Guidelines (CEEAG).
Fortum Group highlights several core principles as essential drivers for the fulfilment of the Green Deal. These include among others a meaningful price signal including CO2 price, using public money rather than leveraging costs in the form of levies and using the carbon content as the main basis for an environmental bonus.
Our key messages
- We welcome the update of the State Aid guidelines. It is important to align State Aid rules with the objectives of the established EU climate neutrality goal and the EU’s ‘Fit for 55’ legislative package. Transparent, clear and smooth guidelines are key to support the implementation of State Aid without creating additional bureaucratic burden.
- A functioning market and strong CO2 steering should remain key drivers for implementation of the climate targets, and we need to create the favourable framework conditions to encourage and facilitate investments in new clean technologies and innovations, such as hydrogen, synthetic fuels and CCS/CCU. Public support should be considered to help these new technologies mature and to facilitate their market take-up.
- Investment aid should be preferred over operating aid. However, in new business models where operating expenses represent the majority of the costs, such as hydrogen electrolysis, there is a need for operating aid to help this technology mature and become competitive in the longer term.
The attached paper includes our detailed comments regarding several items in the CEEAG draft important for the energy sector, such as development of the clean hydrogen economy, decarbonisation of the heating sector, advancing carbon removal technologies, supporting biodiversity and renewable energy, compensating energy system services (ancillary services) as well as acknowledging the role of natural gas in supporting a safe and secure energy transition.
Read more: our contribution to the Commission's consultation
For additional information, please contact:
Merja Paavola, Vice President, Corporate Public Affairs, Fortum (merja [dot] paavola [at] fortum [dot] com)
Sebastian Veit, Senior Vice President, Government Relations, Uniper (sebastian [dot] veit [at] uniper [dot] energy)