Several environmental organizations, 2Celsius, Bankwatch, Declic, Greenpeace and WWF-Romania (World Wide Fund for Nature), have accused the Ministry of Energy of putting the Energy and Climate Change Plan, PNIESC, out for public discussion without announcement. this is just before Christmas, with a deadline of January 21st. In addition, the document is published on the website of the Ministry of Energy in the “about us” section, and not in the section devoted to public transparency. We remind you that the PNIESC project was severely criticized by the European Commission due to the lack of measures and information, as well as weak goals.

• The European Commission strongly criticizes Romania for what the national energy and climate plan looks like / The document was sent late, it lacks measures and information, and the targets are weak

The European Commission was also unhappy that Romania submitted the draft on October 31, 2023, three months late, giving the Brussels authorities “limited time to prepare their assessment” and make recommendations for improvement.

Within six months, until June 30, 2024, the PNIESC must reach its final form, during which the Romanian authorities, especially the Ministry of Energy, must clarify the aspects required by the European Commission and take into account the recommendations.

Environmental organizations are asking for a longer period for consultations

Environmental organizations ask the Ministry of Energy to extend the period of public discussion. Such a request was also sent to the cabinet of Minister Sebastian Burduzhi.

Consultation with civil society is extremely important given the criticism from the European Commission on renewable energy, where the target set by Romania through the PNIESC is only 34% of gross final energy consumption by 2030. This target is below the 41% quota derived from the formula in Annex II to Regulation (EU) 2018/1999 on the Governance of the Energy Union and Climate Action. In addition, the government has not proposed concrete measures to reduce fossil gas use and phase out fossil fuel subsidies. The trajectory to which Romania is actually moving is to increase the volumes of gas and oil consumed, which may be incompatible with the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, environmental organizations say.

They say there is a lack of information on how Romania plans to reduce energy poverty and encourage a just transition to a low-carbon economy, both in terms of concrete plans and funding.

The plan was published in a section of the Ministry of Energy’s website where announcements or administrative decisions are not normally published, and the announcement was not published in the media, as required by the law on transparency of decisions, environmental groups say.

At the same time, the Ministry of Energy and Coal also started the procedure for obtaining environmental approval for PNEESC, but the announcement is placed in the same section of the website, and not on the page of the Ministry of Natural Resources, as it should be. . In this case, the announcement was made in one online publication only once, contrary to the obligations stipulated by the law.

The signatory public organizations ask the Ministry of Energy to organize a public discussion to which all interested parties would have access.

Critical remarks of the Commission, very briefly:

• Regarding renewable energy, the PNIESC draft lacks information on the measures Romania plans to take
• There are no forecasts regarding the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and carbon absorption
• The document lacks ambitious goals and policies for energy storage
• There are no specific goals and financial measures to support research and innovation in the field of clean energy technologies
• No specific measures on climate change and energy, nor sources of funding, are presented

The PNIESC project addresses the revised energy and climate targets recently agreed under the Fit to 55 package and the REPowerEU plan.

We will remind you that in November, Romanian energy market players were surprised to discover that the PNIESC project is on the European Commission’s website, despite the fact that the document was not publicly discussed in Romania.