(Ep. 30) Making Romania Fit for 55: Interview with Radu Dudau

This week we speak with Radu Dudau, he is the co-founder and director of the Energy Policy Group in Romania. He is also a professor of International Relations, and has extensive academic and research positions from the United States (Harvard), the UK (Oxford) along with continental universities in Germany, Denmark and Romania.

This week we gain an insight into how Romania is tackling the energy transition. As we learn Romania holds high potential to build a strong renewable energy portfolio with a good natural environment in the Danube delta and investor interests.  The European Commission wants to push the country towards 40% of renewables in the next few years. In short, Romania holds the potential to shift away from coal and embrace renewables.

As Radu points out, half of the population lives in the countryside and as my week-long trip through the country showed me, there is a lot of poverty and difference between regions. Romania represents both Eastern European EU member states, but also other Balkan countries who hang onto coal and nuclear power. As we discuss, the money from the EU means financing the transition is not much of an issue, but what is, is the transparent and professional capacity by governments and stakeholders to properly implement projects. What we come to understand in this episode what is happening in Romania and what the impact of the EU is in the country. This will help is to understand broader challenges in both EU Eastern countries and in other Energy Community countries in the Balkans.

I have two key takeaways. First, as Romania's roads indicate, miracles can happen. But as Radu points out, it is not a question of money to build a green energy solution, but competency and transparent governance. An effective transition requires not just a situation or a site that needs assistance, but effective professional capacity on the ground with the money being well spent.

The second, is that while we discuss energy policies, and both of our research is around energy, the subject matter has now changed to be about climate change targets. The energy system for me, was never an isolated system, but an arena where a multitude of processes and issues collide and can be analyzed in a constrained manner. In this interview we delve into energy policies, but these are connected to the climate change goals that are necessary to implement.

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