The 9^th Towards2030 Issue Paper seeks to shed light on some key aspects determining the global prospects for fossil fuels and their repercussions for EU renewables deployment and policy making towards 2030.

In this paper we propose and put forward to discussion a new mechanism for cross-border support of renewable electricity in the European Union.

This issue paper considers climate policy development outside the EU by defining four renewable policy goals.

This Issue Paper focuses on the fulfilment of the 2030 EU renewable energy target, while taking into account the overall framework of EU governance on energy and climate.

Public benchmarks of how the EU target could be broken down into individual contributions are a useful starting point for the pledging process.

Both EU and national policymakers face a difficult task: how to support renewable electricity deployment successfully (i.e. effectively and efficiently) in the short and medium terms and, in particular, in a 2030 horizon.

As the share of intermittent RES (such as wind turbines and solar PV) increases significantly, their deployment challenges the operation of power systems, and impacts the role played by electricity markets that have not been designed to handle the features of intermittent RES.

On 23/24 October 2014 the European Council decided on a new set of targets for 2030 including binding targets for domestically reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 40% until 2030.

Against the backdrop of the recent geopolitical developments in Ukraine, security of energy supplies – foremost supply of natural gas – in the EU has regained top priority on the EU energy policy agenda.