EUSEW is the biggest annual event dedicated to renewables and efficient energy use in Europe. It comprises a series of activities aimed at building a secure energy future for Europe. The Director of ideopsis Ltd, Anthi Charalambous, participated in the activities of the EUSEW 2023, which took place in Brussels 20-22 June 2023. This year the EUSEW included:

• a policy conference with 7 plenary and 60 policy sessions covering topics related to skills, energy efficiency, affordability and inclusion, renewables, and decarbonisation
• the prestigious EUSEW Awards
• the Energy Fair with more than 35 stands

With a focus on affordability, inclusion, and energy efficiency, Day 2 was about putting consumers at the forefront of the energy transition. Also, sufficiency (was explicitly mentioned in Day 2) is the missing pillar of the Energy Union for a just and ambitious transition toward climate neutrality. Therefore, in the context of the energy crisis, the potential of sufficiency to reduce the EU’s consumption of resources while lowering consumers’ bills was also explored. Moreover, the central aim of REPowerEU is twofold: Ending Europe’s dependence on Russian fossil fuels as quickly as possible, in principle by 2027, with a 2/3 cut in Russian gas consumption by the end of 2022; and securing the long-term sustainability, cost-effectiveness, and energy supply to the EU energy system through a controlled departure from this long-entrenched relationship with Russia. 

Achieving these goals will require a combination of short, mid-term, and long-term targets and measures covering the following three pillars: (i) demand reduction, (ii) diversification of suppliers for conventional (fossil) fuel imports whilst future–proofing the corresponding infrastructure, (iii) acceleration of the transition to renewable energy sources. The timeline and level of ambition are such that the speed and scope of action will have to go far beyond the already ambitious proposals outlined to date, for example under the ‘Fit for 55 Package’ and the ‘Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package’.

Public authorities, energy agencies, industry associations, businesses, civil society organisations, media, city councils, European institutions, private companies, research organisations, citizen groups, NGOs, SMEs and start-ups, networks of national, regional and local authorities, consumer associations, citizens’ groups, youth associations and other energy stakeholders involved in leading the transition towards renewable energy in Europe joined the onsite in Brussels.