Towards carbon neutrality through ambitious transformation of the EU energy system

Briefing 11-07-2022

According to a recent European Parliamentary Research Service Cost of Non-Europe (CONE) report, ambitious and united European Union (EU) action in climate and energy policy could be very beneficial, bringing gains of up to 5.6 % of gross domestic product (GDP), equal to €1 trillion additional GDP per year in 2050, compared to a continuation of the status quo (see Figure 1). However, failure to arrive at a common approach, in particular by collectively addressing volatile energy prices and systemic risks emerging from EU dependency on external suppliers such as Russia, could result in the EU missing out on some, or the entirety, of these potential benefits. In this briefing we confirm that the EU has a key role to play to attenuate and eliminate the related risks and in making the transformation possible and successful. We also confirm that fragmentation driven by low ambition and muddling through, or even worst case scenarios of fragmentation, would result in relatively high negative impacts.