Bulgaria urgently needs a national long-term energy transition policy. It continues to work with an outdated energy strategy that is adjusted depending on the specific political decisions that are pushed through the parliament at any given time. This was said by Ruslan Stefanov, program director of the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), at a round table “Exiting the Vicious Circle: A Long-Term Vision for Decarbonization and Economic Transformation of Bulgaria” in Sofia. Organizers of the forum are the CID, the Center for Energy Efficiency “EnEfect” and the Ecological Association “For the Earth”.
Stefanov pointed out that our country is seriously behind in terms of decarbonization and economic transformation through decarbonization.
Successive governments have shied away from committing to ambitious decarbonisation targets. We understand the complicated political situation, but this comes at the cost of the prosperity of Bulgaria, of each one of us and mostly affects those households that are most vulnerable to this transition, Stefanov believes.
According to him, the current policy framework and the updated version of the integrated energy and climate plan will not lead to full decarbonisation.
He noted that the removal of lignite coal from the country’s energy mix is a key prerequisite for the decarbonization of the Bulgarian economy. Apart from all the health consequences, by delaying the transformation of these areas, we risk turning them into long-term ghettos, Stefanov pointed out.
According to Alexander Davidov, head of the “Energy balances, sectoral policies, strategies and markets” department at the Ministry of Energy (ME), this year was the most important for the liberalization of the electricity market in our country. At the moment, the prices per megawatt hour of energy are very low, and perhaps this process would have been much more painless, Davidov commented on the postponement of the liberalization by one year.
Regarding the integrated national plan in the field of energy and climate, Davydov said that yesterday the EC informed us that the case for failure to submit the updated version of the integrated plan on time was terminated. In January, we had to give an updated version of the integrated plan, we had initiated a case in the EC, he explained and added that yesterday the message came that the case was terminated, as an updated version was presented. It has also been uploaded to the web pages of the ME and the Ministry of the Interior.
Davydov said that the updated plan defined new ambitious goals and measures, fully compliant with the new EC directives. The goals and measures are related to the process of transformation of the national energy mix, decarbonization with a sustainable reduction of emissions in the energy sector through new technologies, adoption of a national goal of climate neutrality by 2050, he said.
Detelina Petrova, an expert at the Ministry of the Environment and Waters (MOEW) explained that the MOEW is responsible for one of the directions in the integrated plan – reducing greenhouse gas emissions and absorptions. We have a national goal, which is to reduce emissions by 10 percent by 2030, and which affects sectors outside the European emissions trading scheme – transport, agriculture, buildings, waste, Petrova pointed out. She added that we also have a quantitative goal in the land use, land use change and forestry sector, which must be reported in 2030. In the event that we succeed with relevant policies and measures to achieve our national goals, this will prove positive for Bulgaria effect to achieve our long-term goal – long-term neutrality by 2050, she said. If we fail to implement the relevant measures in time, we will have to go to the European market to purchase the relevant units in order to achieve our national goals, the expert added.
According to Dragomir Tsanev, executive director of the Center for Energy Efficiency “EnEffect”, we must perceive the integrated national plan in the field of energy and climate as a method for creating business models that will allow the growth of the economy and contribute to the inclusion of more and more economic entities in measures and activities related to sustainable energy practices. For this, we need transparency of political messages, sustainability of funding models and a long-term policy that gives certainty to all participants in value creation processes, he said.
