Climate and energy policy falls within the competence of several ministries. The audited entity was the Ministry of Economy of the Slovak Republic, which, as the central State administration body, is responsible for energy and energy efficiency. The Act 309/20019 Coll. on the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and High-Efficiency Cogeneration, implemented Directive 2009/28/EC into national legislation establishing a framework for the promotion of energy from renewable energy sources (RES).

The national goal of the Slovak Republic is to increase the share of energy from RES in gross final energy consumption from 6.7% in 2005 to 14% by 2020 and to achieve a 10% share of energy from RES in fuel consumption in transport. The implementation of related measures should have an impact on public resources.

The audit focused on the assessment of applied State support schemes for the use of RES in selected areas of climate and energy policy, which were photovoltaic cells, biofuels, compressed natural gas, liquefied petroleum gas, liquefied natural gas, hydrogen and electric cars, as well as the impact of support on public resources. In the examined areas of state support (with the exception of photovoltaic cells and electric cars), the SAO SR pointed out possible risks, their insufficient effectiveness, as well as the absence of motivation to use RES.

Achieving the goals of climate-energy policy, while maintaining the long-term sustainability of public finances, requires a systemic, coordinated approach of the competent State authorities to the process of adopting and implementing State measures to support the use of RES. Based on the audit results, it can be stated that the system implemented so far and the applied forms of support directed to selected areas of climate and energy policy did not have a significant impact on public finances. Due to the higher growth rate of total energy consumption before the growth of energy from RES in the last two years, growing consumption of traditional fossil fuels and declining consumption of alternative fuels in transport, there was no significant shortfall in Slovak revenues.

Based on audit findings, the SAO SR draws attention to the risk of non-compliance with the binding Slovak target - achieving a 14% share of energy from renewable sources in total national consumption. The SAO SR also sees reserves in the support of electro-mobility or in the production of advanced biofuels, where there is also a risk of non-fulfillment of the Slovak Republic's obligations to the EU.

The full text of the press release about this topic in Slovak language is available here. Use the Google icon in the top bar for automatic translation into the desired language.