DAY 03

Our moderators

Copenhagen School of Energy

Infrastructure (CSEI)

@paoresearch

Philipp Alexander Ostrowicz

TV and Radio Presenter

@SashaTwining

Sasha Twining

The decarbonisation potential of the gas infrastructure in Central Eastern and

South Eastern Europe - Policy BreakfastDiscussion around GIE’s report on “Decarbonisation in Central Eastern

and South Eastern Europe: How gas infrastructure can contribute to meet EU’s long-term decarbonization objectives”

SESSION 01

CH4 Area Sponsor, GIE Board Member, Gas Infrastructure Europe

Piotr Kuś

1

The decarbonisation potential of the gas infrastructure in Central Eastern and South Eastern Europe • Natural gas infrastructure as an essential enabler for the

decarbonisation process in the CEE&SEE region• Switch from coal to gas to hydrogen as a mean to decrease

emissions in cost efficient manner• Gas and its infrastructure supports rapid deployment of RES

sources in the region. It also provides for swift and afordabletransfromation of the heating sector which is predominantlybased on the district systems.

• In 2018 in the Central-Eastern and South-Eastern Europe theproduction of CO2 from solid fossil fuels equaled 645,9 Mt CO2.This is the equivalent of the overall emissions prodeuced inFrance and Spain in the same year.

• Natural gas can also have an immediate and tangible positiveeffect on the life of EU citizens: air pollution resulting fromburning high-emission fuels (including NOx, SOx and fineparticles) constitutes a serious health problem in manycommunities.

• There is no ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution to achieve the ultimateobjective of carbon neutrality

• According to ENTSOG TYNDP 2020, National Trends Scenario, theforecasted energy mix of the CEE&SEE in 2025, 2030 and 2040shows that natural gas as a transition fuel will play a significantrole in the energy mix of many countries in the region. In somecountries e.g. Slovakia or Poland the increase of the natural gasshare in the energy mix will be significant even post 2040.

Polish Bank Association in Brussels

Piotr Gałązka

2

DG ENER, European Commission

Tudor Constantinescu

3

The Czech Gas Association

LenkaKovačovská

4