The European Commission launched the Recovery and Resilience Facility to help repair the immediate economic and social damage caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The main aim is to make member states’ economies and societies more sustainable, resilient, and better prepared for the challenges and opportunities presented by the green and digital transitions. To benefit from the Facility EU member states have created recovery and resilience plans setting out a coherent package of reforms and public investment projects. Can the Visegrad countries utilise the green investment opportunities offered by the Facility? What are the main green projects of these countries? What are the main challenges associated with implementing the plans?

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The importance of the natural gas infrastructure has long been the common denominator in energy policy discussions and agenda setting relating to V4 security of supply. The heated geopolitical tension around the flows via Ukraine and the potential abuse of market power by the largest supplier of imported gas to the EU seem to have ended. This session looks at the state of play regarding the gas flows in the new era – following the expiry of the Russian-Ukrainian long term transit contract in 2019. Besides the changes in gas flows and their impact on the V4 there is growing certainty that the role of gas in the energy system is about to undergo major fundamental change, not for geopolitical reasons, but because of climate change and the decarbonisation agenda.

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This panel will be held in cooperation with the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic.

The decarbonisation of the energy sector raises questions about effective energy storage. In the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, a major issue is the availability of high capacity batteries, but there are other energy storage options as well, such as hydrogen. Does the CEE region have the R&D and business potential to play an active part in these changes? Are the governments doing enough to support these changes? Are nuclear power plants ready to produce hydrogen and contribute to the growing fuel cell industry?

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This panel will be held in cooperation with the Ministry of Environment of the Slovak Republic.

Achieving a carbon-neutral economy by 2050 requires the deep transformation of each and every economic sector including industry, which is responsible for about 20% of all EU greenhouse gas emissions. The aim of this panel is to discuss what pathway industry should take to achieve carbon neutrality. The transition pathways in industry offer several options including process efficiencies, fuel switching, materials recycling and reuse, and materials efficiency and substitution. Which technologies should be deployed to enable low-carbon production?

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