The Government of the Republic of Slovenia adopted the updated Comprehensive National Energy and Climate Plan (NEPN 2024), which set ambitious goals for the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, greater energy independence and an accelerated transition to clean energy by 2030.
The Ministry of Environment, Climate and Energy announced that the new plan includes measures that will ensure a sustainable future and energy security of Slovenia. They point out that the updated NEPN is proof that Slovenia responsibly plans energy efficiency and the future, and that it will soon be submitted to the European Commission for review.
The country plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55 percent by 2033 while accelerating the use of renewable energy sources (RES).
A complex and demanding comprehensive environmental impact assessment was carried out for the updated NEPN, which not only ensured that the National Energy and Climate Plan does not have significant negative effects on the environment, but additionally strengthened its positive effects. In this way, Slovenia maintains a balance between economic development and environmental protection. Also, the Ministry states that the updated NEPN is based on an extensive and open dialogue with the profession and citizens, as well as that the Government has conducted three extensive sets of consultations with the public since 2022.
NEPN has set goals and measures in all areas and sectors of energy use, from agriculture to forestry, energy, industry, transport, research and innovation. The implementation of the planned policies and measures of the NEPN will contribute to a lower final energy consumption, an increase in the share of RES in the gross final energy consumption and the achievement of Slovenia’s goals, which lead to a climate-neutral society in the long term.
The updated energy and climate plan also adequately supports the abandonment of coal through the development of other domestic low-carbon sources of electricity supply and through its more efficient use.
22 billion euros are planned to achieve the goals of NEPT
In order to implement all measures that will contribute to the achievement of ambitious goals, increased investments will be needed until 2030. Estimated total investments, related to the implementation of measures in the scenario with additional measures for the period 2021-2030. year, amount to around 57 billion euros and show that Sovenia is facing a new big investment cycle. The aforementioned assessment is made for the entire decade, not only from 2025 onwards, and includes investments already made, investments in progress and investments not directly related to climate measures.
Investments that are exclusively related to the realization of the goals of NEPN, i.e. the energy-climatic part of the investment, amount to about 22 billion euros. Most of the investments will need to be directed to measures related to households, such as energy renovation of buildings and replacement of energy devices, electricity distribution and transmission networks, as well as the production of electricity from RES in households and industry.
The volume of total investments in the public sector in the period 2021-2030 is estimated at around 6.9 billion euros. This amount mainly includes investments in railway infrastructure (€3.5 billion), sustainable mobility and public buildings.
The updated national energy and climate plan also contains a good overview of the economic assessment of the effects of the planned policies and measures. They are detailed and relatively reliable in the period up to 2030, while after 2030 these estimates are only preliminary due to the uncertainty of the input assumptions (eg the costs of new RES technologies, storage tanks and the level of investment in nuclear capacities).
Energy portal
Source: energetskiportal.rs
