{"id":120226,"date":"2026-03-10T16:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/?p=120226"},"modified":"2026-05-20T09:52:03","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T07:52:03","slug":"eu-energy-affordability-plan-gets-electrification-right-nuclear-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/eu-energy-affordability-plan-gets-electrification-right-nuclear-wrong\/","title":{"rendered":"EU energy affordability plan gets electrification right, nuclear wrong"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomes elements of the <a href=\"https:\/\/energy.ec.europa.eu\/publications\/communication-citizens-energy-package_en\">Citizens Energy Package<\/a> presented today, particularly measures aimed at lowering electricity costs and accelerating electrification, while warning against continued support for costly and unproven nuclear technologies.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h4>Quote<\/h4>\n<blockquote><p><i>\u201cEuropeans are bracing for the next energy shock as fossil fuel prices surge. What they want is simple: energy they can afford and rely on. The only way to deliver that is through renewables, electrification and energy efficiency. The Commission clearly understands this. Its recommendations to cut bills point in the right direction: lowering taxes on electricity, reducing grid costs for local renewables and making heat pumps financially accessible. Now governments must actually implement these measures and stop favouring fossil fuels.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<p><i>\u201cAt the same time, it makes no sense to present this plan alongside more subsidies for nuclear energy, as the Commission is doing with its Small Modular Reactor strategy. This unproven technology is not ready and will not help Europeans lower their energy bills. Europe already has solutions that can\u00a0replace fossil fuels\u00a0faster and more cheaply.\u201d<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4>Comments<\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lowering taxes on electricity:<\/strong> Recognising the role of fiscal policy is welcome. But lowering electricity taxes alone will not work unless governments also phase out fossil fuel subsidies, which continue to distort the market.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lower grid costs for local renewable energy:<\/strong> Allowing local renewable producers and energy communities to benefit from lower grid tariffs makes sense. Communities hosting renewable projects should see lower costs, not higher bills due to grid investments exporting electricity elsewhere.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Making heat pumps more accessible:\u00a0<\/strong>Addressing upfront costs is crucial. Financing models such as heat-as-a-service, social leasing or zero-upfront schemes suggested by the EU Commission can accelerate uptake, especially for lower-income households. However,\u00a0governments must also address barriers to renovation and clean heating in rented homes and shared ownership buildings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>ENDS<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The European Environmental Bureau (EEB) welcomes elements of the Citizens Energy Package presented today, particularly measures aimed at lowering electricity costs and accelerating electrification, while warning<span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":64,"featured_media":120227,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[180,1035,1046,1047,1048,1049],"class_list":["post-120226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-climate-energy","tag-energy","tag-households","tag-electrification","tag-heat-pumps","tag-grids","tag-affordability"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/META-featured-image-right-size-75.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120226","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/64"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120226"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120226\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120226"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120226"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eeb.org\/hr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120226"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}