The European Commission will shortly propose a new ‘gas package’ of measures for the EU. This is the opportunity to ensure gas regulations and markets meet the needs of existing and future gas consumers as demand for fossil gas reduce.
Escalating gas prices and the impact this is having on energy consumers across the EU has been the subject of significant debate over recent months. Whilst much of this discussion has related to short-term measures to cushion these impacts, this crisis has reinforced the longer-term climate imperative to reduce and ultimately eliminate the EU’s dependence on fossil gas.
This E3G briefing considers the issues the EU Gas Package must address as a minimum and suggests potential solutions.
Key conclusions
- The EU Gas Package should provide a framework for energy regulators to take decisions about the allocation of gas network costs as gas usage declines.
- It needs to ensure network regulations do not favour one zero emissions product compared to another.
- It should also nsure users of the existing gas network are not made to subsidise the development of zero emissions gases by paying for products and services they do not require.
- Regulatory solutions to these issues are likely to depend on a robust, independent, science-based forecast of both fossil and zero emissions gas usage.
