Speaker
Description
The European Union’s (EU) ongoing energy transition, rooted on frameworks such as the European Green Deal and REPowerEU, seeks to balance climate commitments with goals surrounding energy security and economic competitiveness. As the EU reconfigures its energy strategies, member states are required to adopt more ambitious renewable energy targets within increasingly constrained timelines. This has given rise to heightened territorial tensions related to renewable energy development (Poggi et al., 2018; Rodríguez-Pose & Bartalucci, 2023; Vezzoni, 2023). In Portugal, recent updates to the National Energy and Climate Plan have set a significantly higher target for solar capacity, intensifying land-use pressures, namely in agricultural areas and forested land, with impacts in sustainable spatial planning. This study presents the Cohesion Policy as an essential financial tool for encouraging sustainable energy systems based on important characteristics of project funding in Portugal, presenting prospects for advancing climate and environmental goals. An analysis of projects funded between 2014 and 2020 under the five regional operational programmes and the Sustainability and Efficient Resource Use Programme (POSEUR) reveals that the Cohesion Policy has supported a diverse range of energy transition initiatives, including decentralised solar energy, renewable gases such as hydrogen, and energy efficiency initiatives. Moreover, a positive relationship was observed between funding and PV self-consumption, particularly in municipalities with higher CO₂ emissions from the industrial sector. Building on these findings, this study discusses potential future challenges and opportunities of Cohesion Policy, with a particular focus on co-location strategies promoting sustainable spatial planning.
References
Poggi, F., Firmino, A., & Amado, M. (2018). Planning renewable energy in rural areas: Impacts on occupation and land use. Energy, 155, 630–640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2018.05.009
Rodríguez-Pose, A., & Bartalucci, F. (2023). The green transition and its potential territorial discontents. Cambridge Journal of Regions, Economy and Society, rsad039. https://doi.org/10.1093/cjres/rsad039
Vezzoni, R. (2023). Green growth for whom, how and why? The REPowerEU Plan and the inconsistencies of European Union energy policy. Energy Research and Social Science, 101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erss.2023.103134
| Keywords | Renewable Energy; Solar Energy; Cohesion Policy; European Union; Portugal. |
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