Bulgaria should take full advantage of the process of updating the National Energy and Climate Plan (NECP), to accelerate the energy transition, facilitate investment in innovative low-carbon technologies, and improve energy security and efficiency. This is the only way to address the socio-economic consequences of the transformation of the Bulgarian economy and the high levels of energy poverty in the country. 

These are some of the key messages of CSD’s latest analysis of three possible trajectories for achieving climate neutrality of the Bulgarian economy by 2050. The study was presented at the roundtable Exiting the Vicious Circle: Long-Term Vision for Decarbonisation and Transformation of the Bulgarian Economy on 25 April 2024.  

CSD experts were joined by Aleksander Davidov, Director of the Energy Balances, Sector Policies, Strategies and Markets Department at the Ministry of Energy, Ivaylo Aleksiev, Executive Director of the Sustainable Energy Development Agency (SEDA), Maria Trifonova, Chief Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Economics, Sofia University "Kliment Ohridski", Dragomir Tsanev, Executive Director of Center for Energy Efficiency "EnEffect" and Radostina Slavkova, Energy and Climate Coordinator, Environmental Association "Za Zemiata”. 

Speakers at the roundtable stressed the need for science-based sectoral analyses that lead to the lowest system costs and increased competitiveness of the Bulgarian economy, as well as public support for the development and implementation of cutting-edge technologies in the energy sector. As policies in the building sector are an intersection between measures to increase energy efficiency and the production of renewable energy for self-consumption, ambitious goals in the field of energy efficiency should be linked to the necessary financial resources and a working mechanism for their implementation. 

All speakers agreed that Bulgaria should also take ambitious measures to improve energy efficiency by encouraging citizens to cultivate energy saving habits, introducing mechanisms for efficient energy consumption management among households and businesses, and democratizing electricity production as a process of citizen involvement in the energy system.