The Council of Ministers has approved Cyprus’ draft energy and climate plan for 2021-2030 as part of undertakings to the European Union which is stepping up efforts to deal with climate change.
 
Last year, the national governments, the European Parliament, and the European Commission agreed that each of the 28 EU member states should make a 10-year plan related to energy and climate action.
 
The plan should include national goals and planned policies to achieve those goals.
 
It covers five sectors:  security of energy supply, a competitive internal energy market, reduction in energy demand, reduction of carbon based energy and promotion of research and development in energy.
 
The national plan should also set out the challenges specific to each member state and the policies and measures to be adopted in the sectors of energy, transport, industry, refuse, agriculture and land use in order to help achieve these targets.
 
Cyprus’ national strategy was drafted by a special body set up in 2017 to monitor progress in meeting national targets with the participation of government ministers and other experts.
 
The targets set out by the national strategy are:
 
  • The EU target is reduce carbon emissions by 40% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.  Cyprus’ national target is to reduce carbon emissions by 24% compared to 2005 levels (emissions from electricity generation, cement works and brick factories are excluded). Recent studies show that transport accounts for 49% of total emissions (excluding electricity production), refuse for 17%, agriculture for 14% and manufacturing 12%.
  • Renewable sources of energy should by 2030 account for 32% of energy in the EU. Binding targets have still not been decided at national level.
  • Reduction in energy consumption in the EU by  32.5% by 2030. Cyprus is expected to reduce consumption by 9.5% compared to 2007.
The national strategy of Cyprus and that of other member states will be presented to a technical working group on January 29 and 30 to be followed by consultations with all involved parties so that a final national strategy can be submitted by December 2019.