Nine heads of government and the President of the EU Commission will meet in Ostend, Belgium today for the North Sea Summit. The summit will focus on establishing new commitments to offshore wind and reducing dependence on Russian oil and gas.
The coalition will be the largest-ever of its type, building on the summit last year between Belgium, Demark, Germany and the Netherlands in Esbjerg. These four nations formed the “North Sea Coalition” and committed to quadrupling offshore wind capacity to 150GW by 2025. Should this be achieved, the North Sea would become the largest renewable energy areain Europe.
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This year, these four nations are joined by the UK, France, Ireland, Luxembourg and Norway. Attendees hope to agree on new commitments to expand offshore wind capacity in the North Sea.
More than 100 companies, from various countries and points in the supply chain, have signed an ”industrial declaration” calling on the nine governments to reinforce their offshore wind commitments.
The EU’s Net-Zero Industry Act and the UK’s Powering Up Britain policy both emphasise increased renewable investment to achieve net-zero energy targets as well as increasing energy security. Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent implementation of sanctions on the use of Russian oil and gas, European governments have seen setbacks in their net-zero ambitions.
Last August, nine leaders from countries bordering the Baltic Sea signed the Marienborg Declaration increasing offshore wind capacity by 700% within eight years.
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By GlobalData“Supporting an accelerated development of offshore wind in the North Sea”
Sven Utermöhlen, WindEurope chair and CEO of RWE Offshore Wind, said that the summit represents “an important step towards increasing Europe’s energy security by supporting an accelerated development of offshore wind in the North Sea. For achieving the ambitious offshore wind buildout targets, we need to massively ramp up European wind supply chains by target industrial policy measures and adequate support instruments”.
The North Sea already hosts significant offshore wind development, but the upcoming summit seeks to “make the North Seas a renewable powerhouse for Europe”.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will attend the Summit this afternoon. Before this, she will attend meetings in Oslo, Norway, in which she seeks to emphasise the importance of North Sea collaboration. Leaders will also discuss safety and security of offshore pipelines, relating to the attack on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline.
