Resolution submitted by: JEF Political Commission 2 – Internal European Affairs
Adopted by the Federal Committee in Malta on 19 March 2023
Amended and re-adopted by the European Congress in Strasbourg on 16 November 2025.

This resolution aims to build a path forward to a decarbonised, secure, reliable and affordable supply of energy for Europe by 2050. It focuses on the production of electricity, of energy for Europe’s industry, as well as heating and cooling of buildings.

JEF Europe,

• Recognising that global greenhouse gas emissions remain at record levels, estimated at approximately 57 Gt CO2-equivalent in 2022, with preliminary 2023 estimates around 52 Gt CO2-equivalent, and that the energy sector (electricity and heat generation) remains the single largest source of emissions, responsible for roughly one-third of global totals, with buildings and their indirect electricity use also representing a major share;

• Appreciating the European Green Deal target of climate neutrality in 2050, and the intermediate step outlined in the Fit for 55 package of a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels;

• Noting that the EU Taxonomy Complementary Delegated Act (2022) allows certain nuclear and gas activities to be classified as transitional under strict conditions, a decision confirmed by recent court rulings but still politically contested, and emphasising that such transitional status must remain temporary, transparent, and consistent with the EU’s 2030 and 2050 climate targets;

• Noting with deep concern Europe’s historical dependence on Russian fossil fuel imports and the geopolitical vulnerabilities this created, while acknowledging that EU pipeline gas imports from Russia fell from over 40% in 2021 to around 11% in 2024 following diversification efforts and REPowerEU measures, yet that imports of Russian LNG to Europe increased in 2024, showing that true energy independence is still incomplete;

• Regretting that the EU failed to end its energy dependence on Russia following the illegal annexation of Crimea and the invasion of Eastern Ukraine in 2014, and instead deepened it through projects such as Nord Stream II;

• Noting that European countries, since the beginning of Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, have started building LNG terminals and buying up gas on world markets, leading some developing countries to burning more coal instead and locking their dependence to fossil fuels instead of investing in renewables;

• Concerned about potential international trade distortions caused by renewable energy-related subsidies in China as well as by extensive tariffs from the USA and stressing the importance of operating on a level playing field in international trade;

• Mindful that the wider decarbonisation of our economies means a higher demand on electricity, as more and more industries such as concrete and steel manufacturers, as well as transport, are electrified, and aware that this electrification will have to come mostly from renewable sources if we are to get to net zero carbon;

• Noting the increasing instability of Europe’s electricity grids amid the ongoing energy transition, as most countries record negative-price hours for the first time;

• Noting with deep concern Europe’s continued dependence on a limited number of countries for key resources for its energy transition towards renewables, such as copper, nickel, lithium, and rare minerals;

• Welcoming the adoption of the EU Critical Raw Materials Act (2024) to diversify supply chains, promote recycling, and strengthen strategic autonomy;

• Noting with satisfaction that the costs of installing renewable sources of energy, such as solar, wind, heat pumps and batteries have come down and become very affordable across most of Europe;

• Welcoming recent developments on nuclear fusion, but recognising that any commercial use of these systems might still be decades away, and that we can therefore not rely on these systems for the decarbonisation of our economies in the medium term;

• Noting that enhanced geothermal systems may not be well-adapted for use in most of Europe, except in areas with a high increase of temperature in the Earth’s crust, typically volcanic regions, where they could constitute interesting options to generate heat and even electric power;

• Noting with satisfaction that under the REPowerEU plan, the EU has seen record renewable energy deployment, with wind and solar power together producing more electricity than gas generation since 2023, and that accelerating permitting and grid expansion remain critical bottlenecks;

• Recalling JEF resolution Better integrated and more sustainable mobility infrastructure for an Ever Closer Union;

• Recalling JEF resolution Environment does not stop at borders: Towards a Sustainable Europe and a Sustainable Global Climate Policy;

• Recalling JEF resolution An Accelerated Transition to the Circular Economy.

JEF Europe therefore,

1. Calls for the full completion of the Energy Union, the integration of European energy markets, and the extension of EU competences to harmonise national regulations, thereby establishing a genuinely European energy market.

With regard to energy production:

1. Asks that more research be invested into the decarbonisation of how we heat and cool buildings, manufacture goods and materials and how we produce and store electricity, and that this research should be performed
   a. by the private sector where technologies are more mature already,
   b. by public-private partnerships, where public involvement will help de-risk the research enough to attract private funding,
   c. directly by public research institutions where promising technologies exist that are not yet mature nor de-risked enough to attract private funding, but where a high decarbonising potential exists in case of success;

2. Demands that the EU and its Member States implement and expand the Critical Raw Materials Act through concrete measures for recycling, circular design, and diversification of supply, ensuring that any new extraction projects, within or outside Europe, comply with strict environmental, social, and labour standards, and are carried out with the consent of affected communities;

3. Calls on the EU and its Member States to safeguard the competitiveness and resilience of the European renewable energy industry by developing a coordinated industrial strategy that promotes fair global competition, ensures equal access to critical raw materials, and prevents production relocation, while fostering international cooperation based on transparency, reciprocity, and shared climate goals;

4. Emphasises the need for Europe to become more independent in the manufacturing process of solar panels and clean technologies;

5. Encourages the EU and European countries to work together with partners in the Southern Neighbourhood to develop new solar power fields and projects that may benefit everyone;

6. Calls for national, regional and local authorities in Europe to remove any unnecessary administrative burdens for the deployment of solar panels and wind power plants by homeowners, companies and public institutions;

7. Encourages further research into and deployment of wind energy parks, including offshore, while developing and respecting proper environmental safeguards;

8. Recommends enhancing the power production of existing hydropower facilities wherever possible, and building new hydropower plants only when the energy and economic benefits are sufficient and with proper environmental safeguards, thus avoiding impacts on pristine ecosystems;

9. Proposes further research into biofuels, including advanced biofuels, as well as green hydrogen and electrofuels, as possible alternatives to decarbonise industries;

10. Stresses that the production of biofuels should not happen by cutting down forests or other natural habitats and should not lead to constraints for developing countries’ food security;

11. Calls on the EU and its Member States to develop a coordinated approach to the safe use of nuclear energy, including the research and deployment of small modular reactors, under strict independent supervision and with binding long-term waste management strategies while noting that any new nuclear projects strengthen European energy autonomy;

12. Strongly encourages the use of heat-pumps to decarbonise heating and cooling of buildings, as a well-proven technology that may be deployed anywhere and that can be scaled to provide heating and cooling from the individual house to an entire city block;

13. Calls for more research and strengthened deployment of carbon capture and storage technologies as a potential way to directly reduce currently difficult to abate emissions, as long as this does not undermine our emissions reduction efforts;

14. Calls for more research generally into decarbonising our industrial processes, especially but not limited to industries such as cement and concrete, steel, and plastics;

15. Calls for residual heat from industrial processes or nuclear energy generation to be used for district heating wherever possible, and that planning processes for new relevant industries above a certain size should automatically require the inclusion of a plan on how to reuse residual heat instead of simply discarding it.

With regard to energy transport and distribution:

1. Calls for more investment and better interconnection of the European electricity grids, ensuring greater reliability of the system;

2. Asks for the decentralised production of energy, using solar panels, heat pumps, etc. to be better integrated into the main grid, so as to be able to provide any excess energy to neighbouring customers, or even to the higher-voltage transport grid;

3. Calls on the EU and its Member States to ensure that all current and future fossil fuel infrastructure investments include mandatory assessments for future conversion to green hydrogen, advanced biofuels, or electrofuels, to prevent stranded assets and accelerate the clean energy transition;

4. Calls for greater grid flexibility, including through energy storage and demand-side measures to manage the instability caused by higher shares of renewable generation in the electricity system.

With regard to energy demand:

1. Requests the prioritisation of large-scale energy demand reduction through building renovation, improved efficiency standards, and the elimination of energy waste, including overheating and standby power consumption, recognising that the cleanest energy is the energy not used;

2. Calls upon the EU, Member States as well as businesses and individuals to consider the energy content of products and services that they procure or purchase, be they manufactured in the EU or imported from abroad;

3. Encourages grid operators and energy providers to deploy existing technologies such as smart meters to dynamically regulate demand through demand-side management, reducing both the likelihood and magnitude of costly electricity peaks while recommending that the EU and Member States promote the integration of smart metering and digital demand-side management tools to stabilise electricity grids and optimise energy consumption;

4. Urges the deployment of a diverse range of energy storage technologies, accompanied by improved financial incentives for energy storage assets, as storage requirements will span multiple timescales, from daily to weekly and seasonal cycles;

5. Encourages the EU and Member States to prioritise energy savings in heating and cooling through large-scale insulation and renovation programmes for public buildings and low-income housing, and to provide targeted support to reduce energy poverty and protect vulnerable citizens from rising energy costs;

6. Calls on the EU to increase funding for research and innovation in energy-efficient computing, including sustainable data centre design, hardware optimisation and low-energy algorithms, to curb the rapid growth of digital energy demand.

With regard to regulation and trading:

1. Calls upon the EU and member states to create common energy markets with non-EU as well as non-EEA countries, such as the UK and Switzerland, on level-playing field basis;

2. Urges the EU and its Member States to guarantee that their transition to a sustainable energy system does not come at the expense of sustainable development in other regions;

3. Encourages the integration of specialised renewable energy education and training into higher education and vocational programmes, alongside incentives to attract students and workers into the green transition sectors;

4. Calls upon the EU and member states to remove unnecessary financial, administrative and judicial barriers to accelerate permitting procedures of renewable energy related projects to achieve the energy transition faster, while maintaining high safety standards;

5. Calls on the EU and its Member States to strengthen the collective protection of critical energy infrastructure and to complete the phase-out of fossil fuel imports from authoritarian regimes, including Russian LNG, by accelerating the roll-out of renewables, storage capacity, and interconnections, in line with the objectives of REPowerEU and the European Green Deal.