Oltenia Energy Complex (CE Oltenia) has spent one billion euro on emission certificates in recent years, said on Thursday, Lăcrămioara Diaconu-Pinţea, member of the company’s board of directors.

She attended an online debate on the energy transition, organized by the consulting company PwC.

“We need state aid. Last year we needed 250 million, this year we accessed 241 million euro, given that the company came up with another 70 million, to cover the total cost of 315 million. In total, we are talking about one billion euros that the company has spent in recent years for this CO2, to cover the cost of the transition, and we have not yet started talking about the other costs,” said Pinţea.

The cost of restructuring the company is of 3.5 billion euro for the next five years, added the representative of CE Oltenia.

“It’s about CO2 costs, closures, activity restrictions, but also new investments. We always have to think about how much it costs us to restrain something that pollutes, how much it costs us to mitigate the effects and how much it costs us to invest in new capacities to help us get there in 2030 and then in 2050,” she added, according to Agerpres.

In her opinion, the most important for Romania will be the moment 2030, which will offer a new structure.

“For Romania, the current period, when we are talking about the restructuring plan of CE Oltenia, is in fact a major stage to reach the target of 2030. I am not just talking about closing coal capacities, but new gas capacities, without which is not possible,” said she.

Pinţea also said that, in fact, the transition is not only energetic, but the whole economy will be affected, so it will be necessary for the whole Government to be the leader of this action, not only the Ministry of Energy.