The European Union is committed to meeting the climate targets set at the World Climate Summit, and has itself set targets such as reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing the share of renewable energies and therefore increasing energy efficiency and reducing energy needs.
All Member States must contribute to these efforts, and each is obliged to draw up a national energy and climate plan setting out the objectives to be achieved and the measures to be taken. This not only allows us to move forward together, but also to compare countries.
Since 2020, Luxembourg has had its own integrated National Energy and Climate Plan, the PNEC.
Luxembourg's National Integrated Energy and Climate Plan (PNEC) is a key element of the Grand Duchy's climate and energy policy. It sets out the national climate and energy objectives for 2030, as well as the policies and measures needed to achieve them.
The «Energie- a Klimaplang fir Lëtzebuerg» is also a strategic document enabling Luxembourg to make an active commitment to climate action and energy transition, as well as to the development of a sustainable economy. It is a direct response to both the climate crisis and the energy crisis.
The PNEC is the result of an intrinsically collaborative approach between the ministries and administrations concerned, coordinated by the Ministry for the Environment, Climate and Biodiversity and the Ministry for the Economy.
The ambitions and enhanced measures set out in the NECP are also based on the results of various public consultation and institutional cooperation processes carried out in recent years.
Citizens and scientists have come out in favour of even more ambitious measures and targets for Luxembourg through :
- the Luxembourg in Transition (LIT) international consultation on spatial planning, to be held in 2021,
- the Klima-Biergerrot in 2022 (KBR, Citizens' Climate Bureau),
- the Climate Policy Observatory (OPC),
- the Platform for Climate Action and Energy Transition.
In addition, a public enquiry, open from 17 April to 16 May 2023, was an integral part of the procedure, inviting citizens to submit their comments and proposals on the project.
The key objectives are as follows:
- Reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions allocated to Luxembourg under Regulation (EU) 2018/842 by 55 % by 2030 compared to 2005.
- Long-term objective of climate neutrality, i.e. achieving «zero net emissions» in Luxembourg by 2050 at the latest
- Increase in net absorption in the LULUCF sector of -27 kt CO2eq in 2030 compared with the average net absorption for 2016, 2017 and 2018 (estimated total net absorption in 2030: -403 kt CO2eq).
- Increase in the share of renewable energies in gross final energy consumption compared with the 2020 NECP from 25 % in 2030 to 37 % by 2030
- Objective of improving energy efficiency by 42 % by 2030 compared with the European EU PRIMES (REF2007) benchmark for the year 2030
The measures apply to six sectors:
- Residential and tertiary buildings
- Transport
- Energy and manufacturing industries, construction
- Agriculture and forestry
- Waste and wastewater treatment
- LULUCF (Land use, land-use change and forestry)
The Klimabonus aid scheme provides increased financial support for the construction and sustainable energy renovation of homes, the installation of technical systems that make the most of renewable energy sources in homes, for zero-CO2 emission vehicles, energy consultancy and the sustainable management of private forests.
The changes include :
- A simplified procedure for accessing aid, in particular by simplifying and digitising application forms.
- Increased promotion of environmentally-friendly insulation materials.
- Greater encouragement to replace old boilers fuelled by fossil fuels.
- The eligibility of air-to-water and air-to-water hybrid heat pumps in existing buildings,
- Promotion of self-consumption for photovoltaic installations, with a higher subsidy and the inclusion of a battery in the eligible costs.
- The desirability of pre-financing mechanisms.
Following its adoption by the Government Council in July 2024, the updated «Energie- a Klimaplang fir Lëtzebuerg» was forwarded to the European Commission on the same day. EU Member States are required to update their national energy and climate plans for 2024. The Luxembourg government has raised its ambitions in terms of renewable energy and energy efficiency. The plan includes a total of 206 different measures, with particular attention paid during the revision work to the «just transition».
These measures correspond to different types of instrument, are at different stages of progress, have different deadlines for implementation and identify different players responsible. And some of the measures are the most important and/or innovative compared with the previous version of the plan:
- CO2 tax
- The ongoing development of Klimapakt 2.0
- The phase-out of fossil heating
- The national energy renovation support body for all low-energy-performance residential buildings
- The Klimabonus
- Promoting the electrification of the car fleet
- Social leasing
- The Klimapakt fir Betriber (KPB)
- The national hydrogen strategy
- Accelerated roll-out of farm advisory services and promotion of «agrivoltaics»
- Reinforcement of targets for net absorption of greenhouse gases and the introduction of an aid scheme Klimabonus Bësch
- Updated projections of greenhouse gas emissions to 2030
The update can be found at the following link: https://environnement.public.lu/dam-assets/documents/klima_an_energie/pnec/pnec-24-vf.pdf