On March 30, a provisional agreement was reached between the Council of the EU and the European Parliament on the update to the Renewable Energy Directive (#REDIII).
Some of the key outcomes of the talks:
- The EU’s overall renewable energy target for 2030 has been increased from the current 32% to 42.5%. For Latvia, this means that the renewable energy target for 2030 could range from 58% to 62%.
- In the transportation sector, fuel suppliers will be required to ensure that 29% of the fuel they supply comes from renewable energy sources by 2030, or alternatively, to reduce the greenhouse gas intensity of the fuels they sell by 14.5%, using renewable energy sources.
- Regarding the threshold for applying sustainability criteria to solid biomass, the limit has been lowered from 20 MW to 7.5 MW. This means that in the future, the number of power plants using solid biomass fuels that must demonstrate the sustainability of their biomass will increase.
- In the industrial sector, the use of renewable energy will need to increase by 1.6% annually.
- By 2030, buildings will need to use at least 49% renewable energy. This entails a gradual increase in renewable energy targets for heating and cooling—increasing them by 0.8% annually at the national level through 2026 and by 1.1% annually from 2026 to 2030.
The European Parliament and the Council, which represents the EU member states, still need to formally approve the agreement reached. Once this process is complete, the directive will be published in the Official Journal of the European Union, after which it will enter into force.
