49 Annual Report 2021 • Security of supply and storage: The measures proposed require Member States to explicitly make storages part of their security of supply risks assessments at regional level, including risks linked to the control of storage by entities from third countries. EU Taxonomy Climate Delegated Act The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of sustainable development and the need to redirect capital flows towards sustainable projects in order to make our economies, businesses and societies, including our health systems, more resilient against climate and environmental shocks and risks. In this way, the European Green Deal can provide for a strong and sustainable recovery strategy and the EU taxonomy can serve as an instrument to facilitate the role of financial markets in delivering such a recovery. This Delegated Regulation of 4th June 2021 specifies the technical screening criteria under which certain economic activities qualify as contributing substantially to climate change mitigation and climate change adaptation and for determining whether those economic activities cause significant harm to any of the other relevant environmental objectives. In accordance with Article 19 paragraph 5 of the Taxonomy Regulation, the Commission shall regularly review the technical screening criteria, including at least every three years in the case of activities labelled as transitional according to Article 10 paragraph 2, and where appropriate, amend this Delegated Regulation in line with scientific and technological developments. These updates shall be developed based on input from the Platform on Sustainable Finance and take into account the experience of financial market participants with the criteria and the impact on channeling of investments into environmentally sustainable economic activities. Digitalizing the energy sector - EU action plan The digitization of the energy sector can bring a lot of benefits, but it also brings risks and challenges. An EU policy response is required to ensure that investments in digital technologies in the energy sector contribute to the Green Deal and to a Europe that is fit for the digital age, and to ensure that it contributes to a single market for energy and for data, the document states. The action plan for digitalizing the energy sector will outline how different EU policies and funding instruments will work together to exploit the benefits of the digital transformation of the energy system, while minimizing the inherent risks and environmental footprint of the respective digital solutions. The action plan will identify possible complementary actions to ensure synergies between them, for example in relation to data sharing for smart grids, smart buildings and smart cities. In particular, policy measures are needed to ensure that new markets based on energy data are open and competitive, while respecting ethics, data protection and privacy and cybersecurity, with consideration to the specificity of the energy sector. The increased energy demand for equipment, networks and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) services, needs to be adequately managed in the context of an integrated energy system. In this context, on 4 October 2021, the Commission launched a public online consultation to collect information from stakeholders and individuals regarding the multiple facets of the digitalization of the energy system, which are addressed through targeted sections and questions. The main stakeholders come from the digital and energy value chains and include Transmission System Operators, Distribution System Operators, Suppliers, Small-Medium Enterprises, Aggregators, consumers, energy communities, energy-intensive industries, etc. The public online consultation was closed on 24th January 2022.
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