May 11, 2022

Bloc said to be set to designate areas for faster environmental consenting as commissioner admits call to cut red tape comes 'from every corner of Europe' 11 May 2022 12:02 GMT Updated  11 May 2022 12:02 GMT The EU will aim to “drastically” speed up environmental consenting of renewable energy development in newly-created so-called ‘go-to areas’ across the bloc. The European Commission will tell its 27 member states to designate areas for fast-track permitting without the need for lengthy environmental procedures, said the Financial Times, citing draft proposals being drawn up as part of efforts to wean the EU off Russian gas as fast as possible. The need to spend years gaining environmental consent is regularly named by the wind and solar industries as one of the biggest challenges slowing projects that could otherwise rapidly advance to construction. Designating the zones could “result in the occasional killing or disturbance of birds and other protected species”, says the draft document according to the FT. Brussels is currently under the banner of its REPowerEU initiative looking at a range of measures to speed roll-out of renewables and hydrogen in a bid to cut heavy dependency on imported fossil fuels, a significant amount of it from Russia. EU Green Deal vice-president Frans Timmermans said on Tuesday that the bloc will soon present detailed proposals to increase energy security based on more renewables and hydrogen, as he claimed Russia’s aggression had already made the case for green H2 more compelling. Article continues below the advert “With the gas prices we see currently, green hydrogen from renewables is becoming competitive. In this way, Russia's war against Ukraine facilitates the very energy transition that will stop fuelling Putin's war machine,” Timmermans told an industry conference. The EU vice-president in the same speech confirmed renewables permitting “must be accelerated, and it must be accelerated drastically, in clear go-to areas that allow a speedy procedure and ensure nature protection at the same time.