The director of CINEA, a recently established EU agency managing €55 billion in EU funding for clean energy and transport, told Euractiv about the challenge of ending fossil fuel projects entirely, saying coal and natural gas assets “are not simply going to go away” and need to be managed during the transition. “The CEF Energy programme supported 66 Actions in the field of gas infrastructure projects in the last seven years” for a total of €1.5 billion, director, Dirk Beckers said.

Officially established on 12 February, the European Climate, Infrastructure and Environment executive agency (CINEA) has one, seemingly straightforward, mission – supporting the green transition.

With its €55-billion portfolio of EU-funded programmes running until 2027, the agency has “a clear focus on climate and environment,” said its director, Dirk Beckers.

“CINEA is the European executive agency that delivers the European Green Deal,” Beckers said.

Among other energy-related programmes, the agency manages €9.5 billion in research and innovation funding until 2027 in areas such as bioenergy, solar, wind, geothermal, heating and cooling, tidal, wave, and hydropower, he said.

All of these are geared towards the EU’s decarbonisation goals, with the aim of reaching climate neutrality by 2050.

“Both renewable and energy efficiency European policies are aligned towards ambitious decarbonisation goals for 2030 and 2050” and “will enable this transition to happen faster, safer but also more efficiently,” he said.

CINEA did not start from scratch, though. The agency was built from the former Innovation and Networks Executive Agency (INEA), which managed previous EU programmes with different political objectives.

The most noteworthy is the Connecting Europe Facility, an EU programme dedicated to cross-border transport and energy infrastructure. With €31 billion under management, CEF covers more than half of the agency’s €55 billion funding for the 2021-2027 period, the bulk of which is reserved for transport infrastructure.