The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) and the Energy Community Parliamentary Plenum (ECPP) organised a joint meeting dedicated to “Legislating Renewables”. The event was held in Skopje on 28 November 2018.
The meeting was opened by ECPP Chair, Hon. Hari Lokvenec (FYROM). The inaugural session also included key-note addresses from FYROM’s Vice Prime Minister, H.E. Kocho Angjushev, and H.E. Kreshnik Bekteshi, Minister of Economy, who set the background for the parliamentary discussion.
The PAM delegation was led by Hon. Antonios Balomenakis (Greece), and composed of Hon. Atay Uslu (Turkey), Hon. Hallil Özşavli (Turkey), Hon. Ali Öztunç (Turkey), Hon. Ali Belakhoua (Tunisia), and Eng. Alessandro Ortis (Italy), Co-Chair of the PAM Panel on Trade and Investment.
An in depth debate focused on legislative strategies to effectively promote the expansion of renewable sources in national energy portfolios.
A recent law on energy passed by the parliament of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia was discussed as an example of effective legislation in this regard. This law has a strong component ensuring the promotion of renewable energy sources, and is also fully in line with the relevant EU directives on energy.
The debate also pointed at a number of innovative ideas. A common electricity grid to connect the two shores of the Mediterranean was discussed as a way to transfer and trade energy. Since different renewable sources are present in the region, such as wind and solar energy, these are likely to produce varying surpluses and deficits in different parts of the region throughout the year, therefore a common grid would allow countries to easily trade electrical energy to mitigate the seasonal factors.
The use of biogas as part of Turkey’s renewable energy portfolio was also noted, as bio-fuel is a carbon-negative source of energy and can contribute to “scrubbing the carbon footprint”, thereby greatly contributing to the fight against global warming.
PAM’s resolution on the establishment of a Carbon Added Tax (CAT) was also recalled. The purpose of such an approach is to set a “cost” of carbon emissions, and act as a deterrent, since it would discourage the use of fossil fuels. One of the purposes of the CAT is to contribute to solving the issue of climate change, despite the lack of an adequate global consensus among countries to limit their emissions. This proposal was first included as a recommendation in a report and resolution unanimously adopted by all PAM Parliaments in Monaco in February 2015, ahead of the Paris Summit on climate change, and since it had been adopted by many international bodies.
The session was concluded with the notion that countries need to ensure that renewables are able to function in a normal way in the energy markets. This requires necessary legislation and exchange of ideas among states on the best practices and lessons learned.
It was proposed to further strengthen the cooperation between PAM and ECPP through the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding, to formalize both the cooperation between the two institutions and to pave the way for further joint events to facilitate dialogue on legislative strategies related to energy policy.
Additionally, on 27 November, on the eve of the joint event with ECPP, the PAM delegates participated in another parliamentary conference organized by GIZ (German Corporation for International Cooperation), which focused on the concept of Energy Poverty, and how specific legislative strategies focusing on energy efficiency can be used to tackle the issue.