(January 27, 2006) In a surprising move, the Slovak Government adopted a new energy policy on January 11. In violation of its own rules of practice, the Cabinet failed to publish the policy proposal for public debate and quietly designated the Christmas holiday period, when no one actually works, as the inter-ministerial consultation period. The new policy completely ignores climate change, cuts renewable energy targets and counts on electricity from the uncompleted nuclear reactors, Mochovce 3 & 4.
(641.5746) WISE BRNO - Although a review or update of the existing energy policy was expected, the proposal now adopted is completely different to the (unacceptably pro nuclear) draft proposed by the then economics minister in early 2005 and was not publicly released before being adopted. Other proposals, also approved by the Government on January 11, were published on its official website beforehand and gave deadlines for comments, but the energy policy was excluded from this process.
The new energy policy has been strongly criticised by local environmental organizations for its serious flaws and illegitimate adoption. Analysts are also concerned that the policy could seriously damage the country’s energy sector and have negative impacts on the economy.
In the first instance, the policy totally ignores climate change - an issue recognized globally as a having top priority. While the majority of industrialized countries around the world acknowledge that a dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions is necessary, and despite the fact that the Slovak economy has 4.4 times higher CO2 emissions per GNP than the EU-25 average, the Slovak government apparently does not consider the issue relevant to its energy policy. Although the energy sector is the country’s main producer of greenhouse gasses, the term “climate change” is not even mentioned once in the entire text. There is no mention of it amongst the priority goals, no targets established, and the policy paper fails to include any strategy that would help the country reach any climate goals.
Secondly, in contrast to the previous version of the energy policy adopted in 2000, the new document does not discuss the future of Mochovce 3 and 4 - two VVER-440/213 reactors whose construction was suspended in 1993 due to a lack of finance and whose future has been matter of fierce debate. Without producing or citing any analysis or figures, the existence (and completion) of these two new reactors is taken as a matter of fact: the only time it appears in the text is in a by-the-way sentence: "It is expected that in 2015, after Mochovce 3 and 4 become operational and after new renewable projects are realized, Slovakia will gain a surplus of electricity. In 2020, after Bohunice V2 is phased-out, this surplus will not exist anymore." This is despite the fact that the energy policy, approved in 2000 and valid until this January, calculated the economics of Mochovce 3 and 4 as highly disadvantageous and uncompetitive.
Third, the new energy policy further marginalizes renewable energy sources. As with climate and greenhouse gas emissions, it does not state any goals for renewables. And similarly to Mochovce, it again just states somewhere at the bottom of a page that “exploitable potential of renewable energy sources mayincrease their share in electricity up to 19 percent in 2010, 24 percent in 2020 and 27 percent in 2030”. Not even should, just may. For comparison, the renewables industry’s current share is about 17 percent. It is interesting to compare this statement with the targets, as agreed by Slovakia in the EU Accession Treaty: to generate 31 percent of electricity from renewables by 2010. Unfortunately, this target is not binding and only indicative so the Slovak government can now easily claim that renewables will in fact not grow at all by 2010, and the targets promised for 2010 will not be achieved even by 2030. In other words, Slovak ministers simply do not expect any development of modern renewable technologies and are seemingly unwilling to encourage any growth in that area.
In the end, it will probably be left to the giant Italian utility ENEL, as soon-to-be owner of Slovak Electricity Utility, to finally decide on these issues. The company does not seem to be at all enthusiastic about investing in Mochovce 3 and 4, unless it receives large benefits and indirect support from the Slovak government - a matter that has been under secret negotiations for some time now. The next issue of the Nuclear Monitor will provide a more detail look at the ENEL deal and its ramifications.
Slovakia is due to hold national elections in September and it is likely that a new government, a year from now, may be willing to reopen the energy policy for review. Slovak NGOs will be pushing for this and will also aim to apply pressure on political parties during pre-election campaigning to encourage them to make clear their stance on future energy policy.
Source and contact: Jan Beránek, WISE Brno, jan.beranek@wisebrno.cz
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