EASAC Energy Programme

Topics are selected by EASAC Council on the basis of advice from the EASAC Energy Steering Panel and can encompass a wide range of energy issues of priority interest to the EU, including energy resources, energy systems integration, renewable energies, energy efficiency, GHG emissions, electricity grid management, and key aspects of energy security and sustainability.

The EASAC Energy Steering Panel is nominated by the national science academies. It advises on the focus of the energy programme and makes inputs to energy debates internationally. It also helps to communicate the findings of EASAC working groups to policy makers at EU and National levels. The Energy Steering Panel meets twice per year under the co-Chairmanship of Professor Hanna-Leena Pesonen and Professor Neven Duic.

The Energy Programme has produced 30 reports and statements  since 2004, some of them jointly with the EASAC Environment Programme.

Work is currently on-going to support the dissemination of EASAC’s reports on Future of Gas, which was published in May 2023, "Decarbonisation of Buildings”, which was published in June 2021 and on “Decarbonisation of Transport”, which was published in April 2019. Work continues also on the dissemination of EASAC reports on electricity storage, which was launched on 19 June 2017 and on multifunctionality and sustainability in the EU’s forests, which was launched on 11 May 2017 (jointly with the EASAC environment programme).

Looking to the future, EASAC’s energy steering panel will continue to monitor EU energy and climate policy developments and the progress of related work by the scientific community. In particular, EASAC will closely follow the development of the European Green Deal and its related strategies, and will produce independent science based advice for policy makers who are responsible for finalising and implementing the new strategies and actions which are foreseen in this policy roadmap. EASAC will also develop science-based policy advice related to the implementation of the new regulatory framework contained in the European Climate Law. Using the results of its recent projects, the EASAC energy programme will continue to work with the EASAC environment programme on policy advice for minimising the negative impacts on climate warming of converting coal fired power generation to use forest biomass, and on reducing the GHG emissions from transport. 

During 2024, EASAC has been working on “Security of Sustainable Energy Supplies” with a view to publishing an EASAC report in Spring 2025.