Brussels, 11/01/2007 (Agence Europe) - It is a bit of an understatement to say that the environmental NGOs are disappointed by the Energy for Europe package presented on 10 January by the Commission (EUROPE 9341). Their fears, expressed on the eve of the Commission's adoption of the proposals (EUROPE 9340), have been borne out.
Friends of the Earth Europe (FoE) describe the package as, “good news for the dirty energy industry, bad news for people and the planet”. The NGO criticises the Commission for ignoring its own scientific and economic analyses and sticking to the status quo on energy policy, instead of giving a boost to radical change in favour of renewable energies and energy efficiency. FoE deplores the fact that the programme aims to improve the way the markets operate in the EU, but leaves billions of Euros in subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear power intact, and fails to tackle the considerable external costs society pays for energy.
Jan Kowalzig, the NGO's expert on climate issues declared, “The EU Energy Package should create a vision for sustainable energy in Europe, based on renewable energies and highly efficient production and consumption of energy. Instead, the European Commission plans for energy policy in Europe to remain dominated by dirty fossil fuels and dangerous nuclear energy”.
On the subject of renewable energies, FoE regrets that the Commission had only set out, “a weak overall target of meeting 20% …by 2020, lower than what is easily possible”. The NGO says that this is without counting the fact that this objective is not even broken down into specific sectoral objectives, “thus missing an opportunity to trigger simultaneous development in all areas. The European Commission itself acknowledges that a lack of sector-specific targets for electricity, or for heating and cooling, will weaken security of businesses when planning investments in these sectors”.
The FoE considers that the EU proposed objective for a unilateral reduction of 20% of greenhouse gases by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, “would not be enough to guarantee the EU's own objective to keep global temperature increase below 2 degrees Celsius”. Jan Kowalzig says that this “would indicate to the rest of the world that the EU is barely serious about tackling the climate crisis…If EU governments confirm a target below 30% at the upcoming EU Summit, it will be a punch in the face for everyone already suffering from floods or droughts”. (gb)