EU unveils draft electrification and heating and cooling strategies

The European Commission has launched public consultations on the EU Electrification Action Plan and the EU Heating and Cooling Strategy. They are open until 20 November 2025, and the feedback received will feed into the Commission’s work on these initiatives, planned for publication in early 2026.

The Electrification Action Plan aims to accelerate electrification in the EU by addressing barriers in different sectors such as industry, transport and buildings in particular by improving the price ratio between electricity and fossil fuels through energy taxation, a review of network tariffs or the exclusion of non-energy charges from electricity bills. In addition, on the supply side, it introduces measures to ensure the reliability and adequacy of the electricity system, enabled by digitalisation and market-based incentives, with storage playing a central role. Innovation policies remain instrumental for some energy-intensive industries, when highly efficient electrification technologies are not available yet. The regional bloc, in its Action Plan for Affordable Energy and the Clean Industrial Deal, targets 32-33% of electricity in final energy consumption by 2030, compared to 23% in 2023.

The Heating and Cooling Strategy seeks to achieve transition to clean heating and cooling by fostering energy efficiency through better system integration while ensuring affordability by reducing dependency to imported fossil fuels. The use of energy for heating and cooling currently accounts for half of the EU’s energy use, with 70% coming from fossil fuels, mainly gas.