Policies for the development of RES in the European Union - The Sustainability of Renewable Energy in Europe - page 73

that limits how much can be added to consumer energy bills to fund clean energy
projects. The aim is to help to reassure investors that costs will not spiral towards
sudden or retroactive policy changes.
With reference R&D investments, under the 2020 Climate and Energy Package,
the Strategic Energy Technology Plan has increased R&D investments across the
EU from € 3.2 to 5.4 billion per year and is progressing towards a single, integrated
roadmap to guide future investments. For the 2014-2020 period, the EU is ramping
up investment in energy- and climate-related R&D and under Horizon 2020, the
new Union research and innovation program, close to € 6 billion will be dedicated
to energy efficiency and to secure clean and low carbon technologies and to smart
cities and communities.
It should be noted that conventional energy has received subsidies for production
or consumption of fossil fuels for decades.
Fossil fuels and nuclear energy have been developed under protected, monopo-
listic market structures. Between 1970 and 2010, in Germany for instance, coal
received € 222 energy billions, nuclear received € 186 billion, and RES received
€ 28 billion. Looking more specifically at R&D spending: nuclear energy received
more than € 12 billion since 1984 out of the EU's research budget, while nonnuclear
energy (fossil fuels, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and all RES electricity, heat-
ing, and transport technologies) received € 6.5 billion (Fig. 3.1 ).
The EU member states have a common approach to the taxation of energy prod-
ucts that was launched with the Energy Taxation Directive 2003 /96/EC (European
Commission 2003 ), which was adopted in 2003 and which was revised in 2011
in order to promote energy efficiency and consumption of more environmental-
ly friendly products and to avoid distortions of competition in the single market.
Agriculture often benefits from reduced tax rates, as well as navigation and rail

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Fig. 3.1 R&D spending in CEM countries from 2000 to 2010 (billion dollars). R&D research and
development, CEM Clean Energy Ministerial. (Source: EREC Factsheet 2014 )