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The new measures include changes to grid access permits and a new remuneration regime for renewables, among other provisions.

By María José Descalzo, José María Alonso, and Leticia Sitges

On 23 June, the Spanish Government passed Royal Decree-Law 23/2020, which entered into force on 25 June, approving new measures in the energy sector that aim to promote renewable energy generation and support the recovery of the economy in line with the European Green Deal (the New Regulations).

The legislation includes six key measures to cut greenhouse gas emissions and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

The French Parliament has adopted a new climate energy package to tackle the effects of climate change and boost France’s energy transition endeavors to reach carbon neutrality by 2050. As per Article 4.1 of the 2015 Paris Agreement, carbon neutrality is defined in the package as the balance, across the national territory, between anthropic emissions by sources and removal of greenhouse gases by sinks. Six key goals comprise this latest legislation.

The UK is the first major economy and G7 country to adopt the target following the CCC’s May 2019 recommendation.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

Adoption of 2050 Net-Zero Target

UK Prime Minister Theresa May has confirmed that the UK government will adopt the Committee on Climate Change’s (CCC’s) recommended net-zero target by 2050, and will formalize that adoption through legislation. The new target supersedes the 80% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction by 2050 target, contained in the Climate Change Act 2008. The Climate Change Act 2008 will be amended to incorporate the new net-zero target via statutory instrument, which has already been laid before Parliament.

The UK is the first major economy, and the first of the G7 group, to adopt a net-zero target, under which GHG emissions must be balanced by initiatives such as improved use of renewable energy, tree planting, carbon capture and storage technologies, and carbon offset schemes. The CCC’s recommended target is considered to be one of the toughest climate change targets in the world.

ECJ ruling provides EU Member States more flexibility in designing the promotion of renewable energies.

By Jörn Kassow, Alexander Wilhelm, and Apostolos Papadimitriou 

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) recently ruled that the German Renewable Energy Act of 2012 (Erneuerbare-Energien-Gesetz – EEG 2012) did not constitute State aid (C-405/16 P). The ECJ found that the support mechanism for renewable energies in practice financed by electricity consumers paying the so-called “EEG surcharge”, and the reductions for electricity-intensive companies related to the EEG surcharge, do not constitute State aid because they do not involve State resources.

The ECJ ruling on 28 March annulled a November 2014 decision by the European Commission (EC) that approved the German support mechanism for renewable energies as compatible State aid, and for the most part the reduction of the EEG surcharge for electricity-intensive undertakings. However, in that decision the EC had also ordered Germany to recover a limited part of the reductions that was deemed incompatible.

Four NGOs launch innovative action claiming state has not met COP21 objectives.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

On 17 December 2018, four NGOs filed legal action against the French state. In the legal action, the NGOs argued that the state has not met the short-term climate change objectives set at COP21. The NGOs — Greenpeace France, Oxfam France, the Fondation pour la Nature et l’Homme (FNH), and Notre Affaire à Tous — simultaneously launched an online petition to involve citizens in the action, now nearing an unprecedented two million signatures to date.

In accordance with the French Administrative Justice Code, the procedure for the legal action has two prongs. First, the claimants submitted a preliminary demand (demande préalable) to the Prime Minister and to no less than 12 government members seeking damages for: (i) moral harm, (ii) moral harm suffered by their members, and (iii) ecological prejudice suffered by the environment. (For more information on ecological prejudice, see Latham & Watkins’ blog post “The Notion of ‘Ecological Prejudice’ Now in the French Civil Code”.) If the state does not respond within two months of the preliminary demand, the claimants intend to file an indemnification claim before the Administrative Tribunal of Paris in March 2019. The claimants intend to allege causation between the state’s lack of action and the acceleration of climate change.

Relief from the mandatory scheme will reduce the administrative burden on non-energy intensive companies.

By Paul A. Davies and Michael D. Green

The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) — which first came into operation on 1 April 2010 — will be abolished at the end of the 2018-19 compliance year, pursuant to the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme (Revocation and Savings) Order 2018 (SI 2018/841) (the Order). The CRC is a mandatory carbon emissions trading scheme that applies to large UK business and public organisations.

The CRC was aimed at increasing energy efficiency and reducing carbon emissions from large non-intensive energy users. These emissions are thought to constitute around 10% of greenhouse gases (GHGs) in the UK. The scheme applied to organisations that, over the course of a year, used more than 6,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) of certain electricity and had at least one half-hourly meter settled on the half-hourly electricity market.

The California Assembly is expected to vote this summer to establish increased renewable energy targets and set a target of 100% clean energy by 2045.

By Marc T. Campopiano, Jennifer K. Roy, Diego Enrique Flores

SB 100, Senator Kevin De Leon’s renewable energy bill, would increase California’s already ambitious renewable energy standards by 2030 with an ultimate goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. On July 3, the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy passed the bill out of committee. In 2017, the bill was approved in the Senate but did not progress through the Assembly before the term ended. In 2018, SB 100 is expected to again reach the Assembly floor for consideration.

As currently drafted, SB 100 would increase California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirement from 50% to 60% by 2030, and set a goal of 100% clean energy by December 31, 2045 through RPS-eligible and zero-carbon resources. Clean energy could be defined more broadly than the current definition of renewable energy, to include energy resources such as large-scale hydro power that qualify as zero-carbon.

The California Assembly is expected to vote this summer to establish increased renewable energy targets and set a target of 100% clean energy by 2045.

By Marc T. Campopiano, Jennifer K. Roy, Diego Enrique Flores

SB 100, Senator Kevin De Leon’s renewable energy bill, would increase California’s already ambitious renewable energy standards by 2030 with an ultimate goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. On July 3, the California Assembly Committee on Utilities and Energy passed the bill out of committee. In 2017, the bill was approved in the Senate but did not progress through the Assembly before the term ended. In 2018, SB 100 is expected to again reach the Assembly floor for consideration.

As currently drafted, SB 100 would increase California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requirement from 50% to 60% by 2030, and set a goal of 100% clean energy by December 31, 2045 through RPS-eligible and zero-carbon resources. Clean energy could be defined more broadly than the current definition of renewable energy, to include energy resources such as large-scale hydro power that qualify as zero-carbon.