Keynote speech by Commissioner Simson at COGEN Europe's Annual Conference

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Good morning to you all.

Let me first congratulate COGEN Europe on your thirtieth anniversary. What an achievement!

I'm delighted to mark it with you.

The year 1993, when COGEN was first launched, was also the same year the EU adopted the SAVE Directive.

This was the first comprehensive energy efficiency policy instrument in the EU.

And it shows how far we've come since then – with partners like COGEN Europe – who've helped shape EU energy policy over all these years.

Let me also say how glad I am to be here today with Anna Zamazeeva.

Ukraine continues to be top of our minds.

Just last week, the Commission presented new proposals to put our support for Ukraine's recovery and reconstruction on a more stable footing.

We will continue to be with you every step of the way.

I wanted to mention Ukraine first because it's a reminder of howmuch is at stake, and why we really have no time to lose in building a better energy future.

Promoting cogeneration is part of that better energy future.

Over the past few years, high-efficiency cogeneration facilities in the EU have delivered primary energy savings almost equal to Sweden's final energy consumption – roughly 360 terawatt-hours.

Cogeneration is good for people – and good for business.

Which is why the EU has made it a long-standing political energy priority.

Today I want to give you more detail on our approach to cogeneration as we face three key challenges: decarbonisation, energy supply and competitiveness.

First, decarbonisation.

As you know, the race is on to cut emissions by 2030 and become climate neutral by 2050.

So we're reshaping the business environment for the cogeneration industry and paving the way for cleaner energy supply in the EU.

Two new pieces of legislation – the revised Renewable Energy Directive and the Energy Efficiency Directive – set out clear conditions for district heating and cogeneration at various points in time of the energy transition.

Under the revised Renewable Energy Directive, we're pushing for the deployment of renewable energy in heating and cooling.

It explicitly gives a key role to waste heat – or excess heat – in buildings, industry and district heating.

It will also introduce new requirements to better integrate electricity and heat, from the planning stage onwards.

The Energy Efficiency Recast also recognises how important the cogeneration industry is in more efficient energy consumption and delivering energy efficiency targets, and pushes Member States to take full advantage of the potential of high-efficiency cogeneration.

The second challenge the EU faces is energy supply.

When Putin began using gas supplies as a weapon against the European economy, and he is still using it, we found ourselves in a difficult position.

But Europe stayed united, putting all efforts into breaking Russia's hold on our energy system.

We diversified gas supplies and saved energy. Most importantly, we accelerated the deployment of home-grown renewable energy.

Naturally, all of this impacts the cogeneration industry, where almost half of the fuel consumption is covered by natural gas.

Cogeneration can help our energy security in two ways.

First, it increases efficiency, ensuring that we can provide more energy services with less energy input.

Second, we can shift away from natural gas to the use of homegrown renewable gases.

This is why we are urging Member States to use the Resilience and Recovery Funds and the National Energy and Climate Plans to propose measures to increase biomethane supply as well as the production of renewable hydrogen.

Finally, the third challenge is competitiveness.

With industry and small businesses facing high energy prices, we have already seen increasing demand for energy efficiency solutions like cogeneration.

Cogeneration can also boost competitiveness as a solution in waste management and in treatment of industrial residues.

However, we also need to makes sure that we have the manufacturing capability to boost the resilience of our supply chains.

With this in mind, the Commission has put forward a Net-Zero Industry Act to scale up the manufacturing of certain strategic clean technologies in the EU.

We want to become more energy resilient, but also promote green growth and jobs.

We've selected the most significant technologies for decarbonising by 2030 – and we prioritise those that are commercially available, and where we have strong points or can jump into a more innovative level of technology.

They'll avail of faster permitting procedures, and simplified and streamlined environmental assessment.

Rest assured that the cogeneration value chain is well represented on the list of selected technologies to support cogeneration.

This includes fuel cells, support for biomethane technologies and electrolysis to shift away from natural gas, and solar thermal and geothermal technologies to complement any heat production.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Last year, Europe was hit by the most severe energy crisis in decades.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine brought the horror of war back to our continent.

And climate change continues to ravage with severe droughts, forest fires and extremely hot temperatures.

This is a very complex environment, requiring huge changes in the energy sector.

Cogeneration – with its unique benefits – will have an important role in this changing energy landscape, especially as we seek to maximise energy efficiency.

It was a pleasure to introduce today EU policies for cogeneration.

I look forward to our continued collaboration as we strive towards a better energy future for all Europeans.

Thank you.