On 18 February 2019, 26 European islands officially launched their clean energy transition plans with the support of the European Commission’s Clean Energy for EU Islands Secretariat.
The European Commission initiative kick-starts the energy transition process with islands to support them in becoming more self-sufficient, prosperous and sustainable.
Despite having an abundance of renewable sources of energy, such as wind, solar and wave energy, most of the over 2200 European inhabited islands currently depend on expensive fossil fuel imports for their energy supplies. The Clean Energy for EU Islands initiative provides a long-term framework to technically and monetarily help islands generate their own sustainable, low-cost energy.
From among the islands that presented their projects, 26 islands were selected including La Palma (Canary Islands) and Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza (Balearic Islands), all in Spain.
La Palma will take part, with another five islands, in a first phase to develop and publish their clean energy transition agendas by summer 2019. Mallorca, Menorca and Ibiza, along with the other 17 islands, will do so by summer 2020.
The 26 islands were selected based on their potential for establishing high-quality transition processes in order to serve as inspiring examples for the rest of the European islands as well as whole European regions.
The Clean Energy for EU Islands initiative was launched on 18 May 2017 in Valleta (Malta) when the Informal Energy Council formed by the European Commission itself and 14 EU countries, represented by their Energy Ministers, signed a Political Declaration as part of the Clean Energy for All Europeans package, launched on 30 November 2016 to accelerate the clean energy transition on Europe’s islands.