SET Plan progress report 2022

Since its launch in 2007, the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) has become the reference framework for addressing clean energy research and innovation developments in Europe. Through the work of its 14 Implementation Working Groups, it has been successful in setting common EU, national and industrial research priorities on low-carbon energy to influence R&I agendas, and has leveraged much-needed resources at both European and national level.

The SET Plan was last revised in 2015, but since then, much has changed. The introduction of the European Green Deal in 2019 and its associated Climate Law, adopted in 2021, have set ambitious greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets for 2030 and 2050. Just this year, as a response to the energy crisis and the issues of energy security raised by Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine, the REPowerEU Plan was introduced to accelerate the 2030 targets.

Against this backdrop of a rapidly changing policy framework, the SET Plan needs some realignment to ensure that it continues to support Europe to achieve its energy research & innovation objectives as effectively as possible. The European Commission is therefore preparing a SET Plan Communication to introduce the necessary changes.

This year’s progress report is designed to support the ‘revamp’ by bringing together the views of stakeholders on possible ways forward for the SET Plan. Some consensus can already be identified on issues such as thematic, cross-cutting challenges, the engagement of SET Plan countries and visibility.

The results of this year’s reporting exercise also highlight some of the success stories of the SET Plan, including the European Clean Energy Transition Partnership (CETPartnership), Batteries Europe, and the SET Plan’s presence in the majority of national energy and climate plans (NECPs).

The 2022 SET Plan Conference in Prague, Czechia, will provide a platform to consider the future of the SET Plan in the broader context of the new European energy landscape, the New European Innovation Agenda and the new European Research Area.

For more information on the report, see the JRC repository.