New York City, 23 September 2024
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Good morning,
A big thank you to the hosts, the Consulate General of Denmark, Danish Industry, and the Danish Chamber of Commerce for inviting me today. I’m delighted to be with you here in Hudson Yards for this year’s Sustainability Summit.
Before diving in, let me first congratulate Denmark. Last week, former Minister Jørgensen was nominated to be the next EU Commissioner for Energy and Housing.
I’ve already had some discussions with him and have no doubt that he will do a fantastic job in the next mandate. I’ve been EU Energy Commissioner for nearly five years at a time of profound transformation for the energy sector. During this time, we’ve had to navigate a series of unprecedented crises.
In 2020, the COVID pandemic swept across the world, plunging economies into turmoil. In 2022, Russia invaded our ally and neighbour, Ukraine, bringing war alarmingly close to home. Europe found itself confronted with the most serious energy crisis in decades.
However, through all these challenges, we never lost sight of the green energy transition as our guiding light. Especially in the aftermath of the Russian invasion, Europe became even more ambitious in its decarbonisation goals.
We needed to phase-out Russian fossil fuels. We needed to deploy more home-grown renewable energy. And we needed to do so for our planet’s survival and our energy freedom. This is why I’m glad to see energy take its rightful place at the heart of the sustainability and climate debate.
We saw it at last year’s COP.
We’re seeing it again at this year’s UN General Assembly with so many events dedicated to energy. Today I want to delve more into these discussions – I’ll talk about the view from Europe, the global energy transition, and the next big energy challenges.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
These past few years have been truly defining for EU energy policy. The full decarbonisation of our power system is in sight. The numbers speak for themselves. We have made notable progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, cutting them by 32.5% since 1990. Over the same period, our economy grew by 67%.
Renewable energy generation in the EU is at an all-time high. In 2024, wind and solar produced more electricity than all fossil fuel sources combined. Half of our electricity now comes from carbon-free sources. At the same time, we have significantly reduced our reliance on Russian gas, cutting imports from 45% in 2021 to just 18% by mid-2024.
And we have done all this while bolstering our energy security. Because for the third year in a row, the EU is ready for the winter ahead of our deadline.
The bottom line is that Europe doesn’t just talk about change. We are driving change. We are also driving change on the global stage.
At last year’s COP, we championed the global pledge to triple renewable energy capacity and double energy efficiency improvements by 2030. Now over 130 countries have joined the call, endorsing the transition to renewables and efficiency. These goals send a clear message to industries and investors. They point to the direction of travel, and this will help to mobilise much-needed private capital all across the world. They also set a benchmark to track progress.
The next task is to ensure these targets are translated into concrete actions – where it matters: on the ground, in peoples’ lives. COP29 in Baku will be an opportunity to do just that. We need to re-double our efforts to build a tracking framework, to keep up the political momentum and further mobilise industry and finance.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Europe has spearheaded a deep and radical transformation of its energy system. We are on the road to a fully decarbonised future. And we are leading the charge on the global energy transition. But as we look to the future, we know that we have some difficult questions to face to get to where we need to be by 2050. There are three challenges we especially need to tackle:
First, the clean transition must move even faster. Simply put, we need to get more renewables to the market faster. This will push energy prices down further and ensure consumers reap the benefits of cheaper renewable energy. In Europe, we must especially focus on grids expansion, which needs to outpace generation deployment. This won’t be easy – because needs are huge. We have calculated that 584 billion euros will have to be invested in grids by 2030.
Second, energy prices must come down in Europe. We have certainly done a lot to bring down prices from the peak of the energy crisis in 2022. But now the focus must be on solving structural issues in the long-term.
Third, we must lower the cost of existing commercial technologies and bring new technologies to market as fast as possible, spreading clean tech across the world. This is fundamental to us meeting our decarbonisation goals.
In Europe, we are focused on re-booting our domestic industrial system to produce important clean technologies. And in the coming years, we’ll be ensuring that energy policy, industrial policy and trade policy are more closely aligned. Alongside this, we’re keen to reduce any dependency risks for critical minerals essential for technologies like batteries, wind turbines, and solar panels.
The global demand for these minerals is rising rapidly. But this demand must be met in a way that is fair and sustainable. Earlier this month, the UN Panel on Critical Energy Transition Minerals, co-chaired by the European Commission, laid out guiding principles to build trust and ensure fairness in these value chains. This is important new guidance.
And I look forward to the UN Secretary General taking this initiative forward at COP29 in Baku and other global discussions.
Dear friends,
In conclusion, the EU’s message is clear: we are committed to leading the global charge towards a sustainable, fair, and competitive energy future. The global pledge for energy efficiency and renewable deployment is not just a target—it’s a call to action. We are making progress, but there is still much more to do.
The next few years will determine just how successful we are in reaching our goals. We’ll continue to work with all partners, stakeholders, and countries in building a cleaner, greener, and better world for all.
Thank you for your attention.
Source – EU Commission