An expanded special committee formed late last month and tasked with preparing a new National Energy and Climate Plan, expected to feature more ambitious RES targets, is scheduled to hold its first official meeting this Thursday.

The committee will need to complete its task swiftly so that Greece’s revised NECP can be forwarded to the European Commission following official approval from KYSOIP, the Government Council for Economic Policy, by the end of the year.

Besides ministerial secretary-generals, the expanded committee, headed by deputy energy minister Gerassimos Thomas, now also includes the chief official at RAE, the Regulatory Authority for Energy, as well as civil, chamber and specialized energy and climate representation.

The new NECP, to feature the government’s energy policy priorities, will also take into account European Commission recommendations forwarded in June, in response to an initial plan submitted by Greece to Brussels early this year.

Promising guidance to the public and private sectors for energy and climate initiatives up to 2030, the new plan will incorporate national commitments announced by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at the recent UN climate action summit in New York.

Greece’s decarbonization, required as a result of new market conditions prompted by increased CO2 emission right costs; utilization of the country’s RES potential; and energy efficiency improvement will constitute the main aspects of the new NECP, Thomas, the deputy energy minister, has noted.