Over 40 civil society orgs. launch Europe-wide campaign for renewables-based power system by 2035

More than 40 civil society organizations from across Europe launched a campaign, Beyond Fossil Fuels, to showcase a path to a renewable-based power system by 2035, a campaign statement revealed Tuesday.

The Beyond Fossil Fuels (BFF) campaign is embarking on a mission to ensure governments, businesses, and financial institutions eliminate fossil fuels from the continent’s power sector by 2035, replacing them with renewable energy and energy efficiency.

The BFF campaign expands the Europe Beyond Coal coalition, which has seen 23 European countries commit to coal exits, 17 of which will happen by 2030 at the latest.

The coalition’s research, Freedom From Fossil Fuels, shows that Europe can replace the amount of coal and fossil gas it historically imported from Russia in the last four years by making determined but achievable increases in the deployment of renewable energy technologies, energy efficiency measures and smart consumption.

The research finds that 70% of these fossil fuels can be displaced by deploying solar, wind and heat pumps alone.

‘This would entail, as a daily average, the solarization of 20,000 homes and 30 parking lots; building of seven solar farms and 14 wind turbines; and installing 19,500 heat pumps across the continent, enabling European countries to permanently replace all Russian coal and fossil gas, without resorting to imports from other countries or increasing domestic production,’ the statement said.

‘Coal in Europe is in irreversible, terminal decline, and even its supposed winter comeback as a consequence of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was all thunder and no lightning,’ Kathrin Gutmann, a campaign director at Beyond Fossil Fuels, was quoted as saying in the statement.

‘The panicked responses to the energy crisis remain proof that Europe is struggling as a consequence of its deep dependence on fossil gas and other dirty fuels,’ she added.

Gutmann advocated for the transformation of businesses, cities, towns, and homes to efficiently run on cheap, clean, home-grown renewable energy, saying it ‘is the only fair and plausible way to tackle the cost of living, peace, security, and climate change simultaneously.’

‘Every politician, business, financier and utility has a responsibility to make this vision a reality by 2035,’ she reiterated.

According to the statement, European governments have allocated an estimated €768 billion since September 2021 to shield households and businesses from surging energy cost but an estimated 35 million EU households were still unable to heat their homes last winter.

According to the statement, ‘investing a comparable amount in solar, wind, and heat pumps would displace over two-thirds of the fossil fuels responsible for driving up energy costs, and replace them with around 29 million solar homes,44,000 solar car parks, 9,500 solar farms, 20,500 onshore and offshore wind turbines, and 28.5 million heat pumps.’

Cyrille Cormier, a campaign strategist, noted that Europe now has a ‘golden opportunity’ to demonstrate its capability of transforming a power system that will be fit for its people, economy and climate.

‘By focusing on a suite of renewable and energy savings solutions, in just a few years, Europe can replace every joule of Russian fossil fuel it was relying on before the war. This will drive dramatic reductions to power bills, promote peace and energy security, and get us on track for necessary climate action and a completely fossil-free, renewable-based power system by 2035,’ Cormier noted.

• Beyond Fossil Fuels
• BFF campaign expands the Europe Beyond Coal coalition