La influencia de la transición energética en la evaluación de impacto ambiental de los proyectos de energías renovables y su compatibilidad con la transición ecológica

Abstract

We live in a situation of change, during which an ecological transition is proposed towards a more sustainable world society, and an energy transition through which we should use renewable energy free of carbon emissions. To achieve this, the European Union designs different strategies and laws. Also, in 2022 an energy crisis born with the Ukraine War comes into place and triggers diverse European policies that plan to modify the environmental protection and, especially, the environmental impact assessment of renewable energy generation projects. The environmental impact assessment is the fundamental tool used to protect the environment from projects, and thus its modification is controversial. In this work an analysis is carried out to find out if these modifications of the environmental impact assessment are contradictory to the ecological transition and effective environmental protection. We can advance that from the energy crisis on, the promotion of renewable energy has lessened the environmental requirements and is contradicting the bases of the ecological transition related strategies such as the European Green Deal from 2019 or 8th Environment Action Programme from 2022. Specifically, Regulation 2022/2577 (and its posterior modifications) cuts out or makes more flexible the environmental impact assessment for the renewable energy projects in certain areas that Member States must design. This has been extended, contradicting the exceptional character that the first regulation should have had.