The energy sector has performed the best in Romania, because it had and continues to have a balanced energy mix, Ionut Sorin Banciu, senior official at the Ministry of the Environment, Watercourses and Forestry (MMAP), told the opening conference on Thursday of the first edition of the Energy Expo event.
„Historically, we have managed to decouple economic growth from carbon dioxide emissions. It is a very interesting graph, which is presented as the model that should be taken up by as many nations and continents as possible. The energy sector has performed perhaps the best of all, but also on a crisis of a post-communist industrial sector. And then, beyond the energy transition that is being made and which has very clear targets, we have pledged climate neutrality in 2050 and each sector has a decarbonisation trajectory. In the energy sector, we performed the best because energy consumption has also decreased and because, at the same time, Romania had a balanced energy mix and continues to have it,” Banciu said.
According to him, there are sectors of activity in Romania where emissions have increased, such as transport.
„There are sectors where emissions have increased – in the transport sector, in the building sector – where we need thermal energy for heating, cooling, etc. Emissions continue to rise, and there the challenges will be greater, because, indeed, we are at a forum where we are talking about energy, we are not just talking about electricity. I see electric vehicles, I see machines that work with batteries, even hydrogen solutions. In the transport sector, I think the challenge will be very big, because so far, we have invested a lot in highways. I think we will have to switch to more railways, more electric trains, why not to hydrogen public transport. These are challenges that the whole of Europe is facing.”
In Banciu’s opinion, any reindustrialisation of Romania should be done starting from a series of plans with „green” business models.
„We want to reindustrialise Romania, but I think we need to start from some plans to use renewable energy to reindustrialise with green business models, with low carbon emissions, because, although Draghi [Mario Draghi, author of the EU competitiveness report] talks more about competitiveness, he also sends a very important signal: The only sustainable route is the green transition, which of course will be in fits and starts. In this green transition, we will have to pay attention to two things: to industrial competitiveness and to the citizens. Although we are a country that produces energy in a favourable mix, we still have quite high prices and we have been forced to cap these energy prices precisely to preserve the fairness of this transition. Of course, we need European funding, but also national funding, and an honest partnership between companies and sectors and the Romanian government, whether we are talking about the Ministry of Energy or the Ministry of European Funds,” said Banciu.
AGERPRES
