The closure of all coal-fired power plants by 2030 was one of the requests submitted by environmental activists to the authorities in the discussions on the provisions included in the Integrated National Plan in the field of Energy and Climate Change 2021-2030 (PNIESC).

“The Declic representatives together with those of Bankwatch Romania presented to the Minister of Energy and the Minister of the Environment the measures that we believe they should include in the Integrated National Plan in the field of Energy and Climate Change, a plan that is being created for the next 10 years, until 2030. We ask first of all for the closure of all coal-fired power plants by 2030. We believe that this measure is very important in the context of climate change and we also want Romania to invest more in renewable energy, to impose a more ambitious target regarding this kind of energy and to meet the target recommended by the European Commission, of 34%,” said Declic representative Cătălina Hopârteanu, for Agerpres.

She was disappointed with the responses received from the Minister of Economy.

“From my point of view, the minister’s statement that coal will be replaced and that in the rural areas will use a lot of gas energy, are not the ones we wanted, and are not in any case in support of some solutions for climate change. We want greater energy efficiency through renewable energy, not by replacing coal with natural gas, as the minister said he intends to happen. We told him we were dissatisfied with this answer. Among the arguments of the representatives of the ministries was that there is no money, but it is publicly known that Romania is the third country that could benefit from subsidies in the field of investments in renewable energy, after Germany and Poland, so we do not see why Romania does not access this money and does not make an ambitious plan to be able to access these funds from the European Union,” said Catalina Hopârteanu.