ENTSOG South-North Corridor GRIP 2017

South-North Corridor GRIP 2017 |

Image courtesy of Snam Rete Gas

4.1.3 SUSTAINABILITY

A historic bridge between current policies and climate-neutrality to be reached

before the end of this century was set in December 2015 at the Paris climate

conference (COP21), where 195 countries adopted the first-ever universal,

legally-binding global climate agreement, due to enter into force in 2020.

The agreement sets out a global action plan to put the world on track to avoid

dangerous climate change by limiting global warming to well below 2 °C above

pre-industrial levels.

EU Member States have committed themselves to following the Paris agreement and

to putting in place the energy-related actions that will be needed at a European,

regional, national and local level. To organise and make the contributions of Member

States effective, in the context of the

Energy Union

, the Commission set up an

integrated governance and monitoring process, also related to the actions necessary

for achieving the environmental targets

. Consequently, in the next years, each

Member State will be required to develop its

National Energy and Climate Plan

setting out the direction and policies to pursue the national energy and climate

objectives in a way consistent with the commonly agreed targets (in particular the

2030 targets).

The first edition of the National Plans, covering the period from 2021 to 2030,

should be submitted to the Commission by 2018, and developed according to the

Commission’s

Guidance on Integrated National Energy and Climate Plans

, presented

as part of the

State of the Energy Union

in November 2015.

Since the

National Plans

, as envisaged in the context of the

Energy Union Strategy

are not yet required, in the following part of this Chapter different national energy

policy frameworks are presented as best available outlines to understand the

expected evolution of the energy landscapes in the countries belonging to the

South-North Corridor Region.

4) Commission’s Communication on a Framework Strategy for the Energy Union – 25 February 2015