Sector integration: How can the EU best create and leverage an integrated energy system?

To become climate-neutral by 2050, the EU plans to transform its energy system, which accounts for 75% of its greenhouse gas emissions.In July 2020, the Commission presented an EU strategy for energy system integration. The strategy aims to link the various energy carriers - electricity, heat, cold, gas, solid and liquid fuels - with each other and with the end-use sectors, such as buildings, transport or industry. Linking sectors will allow the optimisation of the energy system as a whole, rather than decarbonising and making separate efficiency gains in each sector independently.The new EU strategy will involve various existing and emerging technologies, processes and business models, such as ICT and digitalisation, smart grids and meters and flexibility markets. Together with a new strategy on hydrogen, it aims to lay the foundation for the decarbonised European energy system of the future.