Luxembourg's Minister for Energy and Spatial Planning, Claude Turmes, joined fellow energy ministers of the European Union (EU) on Monday morning by videoconference to discuss the future of the European energy system and the place of the energy sector in the post-COVID-19 economic recovery.
On this occasion, Minister Claude Turmes said: “The future of the energy system is electrification. Renewable energies allow us to benefit from a secure, sustainable, affordable electricity supply in line with our climate commitments".
He recalled that renewable electricity can decarbonise many sectors and help resolve the issue of transportation. For sectors where electrification is not feasible, such as certain industrial processes, hydrogen will have a role to play provided that it is exclusively "green" hydrogen, obtained from renewable energy sources.
Minister Claude Turmes added that the European recovery plan must offer ambitious support for these technologies, as well as for energy efficiency to triple the rate of thermal renovation of buildings. This support should also make it possible to relocate to Europe certain strategic value chains around technologies linked to renewable energies.
Luxembourg's Energy Minister continued: "The robotisation of production and the fact that Europe has inexpensive investment credit through the BIE and the stimulus fund, means that Europe can come back into the game".
On the other hand, Minister Claude Turmes "regret[ted] that these strategic discussions are taking place behind closed doors. European citizens, the press, civil society have the right to transparency”.
