Sector coupling is a concept referring to the electrification of end-use sectors (e.g. heating and transport); it aims at increasing the share of renewable energy (solar, hydro, geothermal, wind, bioenergy, waste heat…) in these sectors.
In practice, this is a strategy “to provide greater flexibility to the energy system so that decarbonisation can be achieved in a more cost-effective way”.
The EU has committed under the Paris Agreement to make an effort to keep the global temperature rise below 2ºC, and the decarbonisation of the energy system can be crucial to this purpose. Sector coupling then becomes a key player for the EU “policy objective of shifting from our current highly centralised and mainly fossil fuel-based energy system to a more decentralised, energy efficient and renewable energy-based energy system”.
The quoted paragraphs are taken from an official European Parliament document on Sector Coupling, which you can find at the link below. I strongly encourage everybody interested in energy systems to read it (especially those who are critical towards the usage of wind and solar energy…yes, they still do exist!).
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/626091/IPOL_STU(2018)626091_EN.pdf