Brussels, 21/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The EU28 heads of state decided on Friday 21 March to establish a deadline and a roadmap, and announce areas to be explored later so that a decision can be taken at the European summit in October on the EU's future action plan for climate and energy policies up to the year 2030. This was the outcome of the first discussion of the subject at head of state level, but no figures have been agreed yet (see EUROPE 11041). Upon request from the Danish prime minister, Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the summit gave more details than expected because the initial draft conclusions document simply stated that agreement was expected before the end of the year, as desired by Poland. The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, ensured that it was specified that the presidents of the European Commission and European Council shall pave the way for the future decision.
The European summit welcomed the European Commission's suggestion of a binding reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of at least 40%, a 27% target for renewables in the EU and the creation of a stability reserve on the European carbon market as a sound working basis, and she urged the Commission to submit to the European Council in June an analysis of the impact for each member state of the European renewable energy and greenhouse gas emission reduction targets, mechanisms to enable a fair sharing of the burden among member states, measures to prevent carbon leakage for energy-intensive industries subject to global competition, the drawing up of an energy efficiency framework, and a review of the energy efficiency directive. The United Kingdom managed to have it stated that the targets are precisely that, targets.
For global talks, the European summit said that the EU shall unveil its objectives for 2030 by 31 March 2015 (the end of the current quarter). This will give the EU the time to analyse the contributions offered by other big economies' heads of state at the United Nations summit in New York on 23 September 2014, and also enough time to be prepared for the COP 21 global climate change conference in Paris (COP 21), where a new global deal for the post-2020 period is to be signed. Poland is still unhappy about the EU revealing fixed targets before the other negotiating parties do so, and does not want to hear talk of any new EU targets. It managed to get the wording “special EU objective” added to the document.
The European Summit noted progress by the EU in moving towards the three 2020 targets, adding that they should be fully achieved by 2020. At present, however, the EU has only achieved 16.8% in terms of energy efficiency. The energy efficiency directive should be transposed in June and its draft review is expected in September.
The president of the European Council, Herman Van Rompuy, said that the 2030 targets would fully match the EU's 2050 targets. José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, welcomed the great debate about climate and energy - the first since 2009, adding that the EU is in the process of meeting its three targets for 2020.
The French president, François Hollande, who will be hosting COP21 in Paris, said he had been very active because he wanted it to be possible to have a deal in 2015, not because France is organising it, but because after the failure at Copenhagen, if there is to be failure in Paris, then there would not be any further commitment at planetary level to reduce global warming. He said that Europe had to decide on its own position and would do so in stages. He would have preferred this to be discussed in March, but the broad principles had been laid down at the summit and at the next stage in June, the detailed guidelines would be settled. After that, it will be time for deciding on a detailed negotiating position (after the UN conference and ahead of the Paris summit next year).
The British prime minister, David Cameron, took the same line, saying: “We want the EU to play a strong leadership role in effort to secure a global climate deal next year in Paris. That means swift agreement on a target to reduce greenhouse gas emission and I fully support the 40% reduction proposal.”
The Dutch prime minister, Marc Rutte, said that climate and energy were closely connected and it was very important in Europe to find a solution to the climate problem, while at the same time, Europe also has its work cut out in the domain of energy security over the long-term, which were two sides of the same coin. He added that countries had to keep their sovereignty and decide on their own energy mix, priorities and measures.
The Polish prime minister, Donald Tusk, was delighted with the not very ambitious conclusions document. He said that on the idea of concern to Poland of adding new points to the climate pledges, Poland had been able to negotiate to ensure that no new climate commitments were made at the summit and a more ambitious climate policy was not on the cards. He explained that the two bad words for Poland, “new” and “more”, had been removed from the document.
The president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz, who is much more ambitious over the climate, took a different line, pointing out that the Parliament wants three binding targets (40% for emissions reductions, 30% for renewables and 40% for energy saving) and wanted the rapid presentation of binding draft targets for energy efficiency. He said the Parliament wants leaders to agree as soon as possible on a 40% reduction in CO2 emissions through an effective quota trading system in the light of what was possible for each country. He said this agreement was needed to reassure companies and help them plan, to make the EU credible on the global stage as a pioneer in the fight against climate change and to have a positive influence on future climate negotiations, and it would therefore be useful for the heads of state to reach agreement ahead of the UN summit in New York in September. (AN with CG, El, JK and EH)