Mr. Cillian O'Donoghue:

I will respond to the first question as it was directed to me. The question was what this means for the European Green Deal. Will it be a step back? The opposite is the case. Electrification and decarbonisation will be accelerated but in the immediate short term coal usage will increase this winter. As regards power reduction, there has been a slight increase in greenhouse gas emissions in the electricity sector, which is not good but the general trajectory is positive. We expect electricity generation will be decarbonised by 2040. We are going in the right direction although coal usage will increase slightly this winter for security of supply reasons.

At European level, the ambition has increased since the Green Deal was agreed in June 2021. In June 2022, the REPowerEU strategy was issued and that is more ambitious. We have increased renewables targets to between 40% and 45%. We have also increased the target for the number of heat pumps and aim to have 20 million tonnes of hydrogen fuel in Europe by 2030. In reaction to this crisis, we observe more energy independence and increased ambition on tackling climate change.