On May 30^th, the European Copper Institute (ECI), the European Solar Thermal Industry Federation (ESTIF), the European Geothermal Energy Council (EGEC) and the European Biomass Association (AEBIOM) in collaboration with EurActiv, the European news outlet, held a high-level conference on Renewable Heating & Cooling.

The event was successful with a full room of stakeholders interested in the Renewable Heating & Cooling sector in addition to lively debates between the panel of speakers. It has been noticed that for the first time since the publication of the Clean Energy Package that three European institutions, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council, were represented.

MEP Blanco Lopez, rapporteur of “Promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources” Directive, seized the occasion to present a preview of his rapport. Among his proposals, which will need to be approved by the European Parliament and the European Council, he desires to increase the share of renewable energy supplied for heating and cooling by at least 2 percentage points (pp) every year as well as to go beyond the objectives already established by the European Commission for 2030.

Furthermore, strong statements came from Nigel Cotton representing the ECI during the debate, who clearly identified a difference between the decarbonisation and the electrification. He also highlighted the importance not to lock consumers using fossil fuels by offering enough information and training to the stakeholders involved with consumers.

Various topics have been broached during the event, including:

• The importance of local conditions which are crucial to deploy more Renewable Heating and cooling technologies
• The Energy Security and the importation of fossil fuels as risk for the European Union
• The necessary technology diversification of Renewable in the Heating and Cooling sector to reach the European targets

The integration of the International climate agreement into the European policy framework