Brussels, 02/05/2007 (Agence Europe) - Meeting in Washington on Monday at the EU-United States Summit, European leaders (the President of the Council, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso) and the US President Georges W. Bush pledged in a joint statement to speed up the transformation of energy structures in the EU and the United States to tackle the triple challenges of energy security, climate change and sustainable development. Ahead of the 7-8 June 2007 G8 Summit in Heiligendamm, to be attended by China and India, and the UN conference on climate change in Bali in December 2007, the Summit statement hid some crucial differences between the EU and US on energy and climate change. The EU focuses on the quantitative targets set by the European Council in March 2007 (a unilateral 20% cut in CO2 emissions by 2020, for example), while the US focusses on new energy technology. The two sides simply 'adopted a joint statement on energy security and climate change that underlines our mutual interest in ensuring secure, affordable, and clean supplies of energy and tackling climate change', 'reducing anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases.' The joint statement also notes the two sides' plans to work together ahead of the Bali conference without calling for post-Kyoto negotiations on climate change at the Summit in Indonesia in December.
A degree of transatlantic convergence was found, however, on priority areas for improving energy security and cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The EU and US 'committed to further cooperative work on promoting commercial deployment of clean coal and other technologies, promoting energy efficiency in transportation and buildings and appliances, supporting research and development of second generation biofuels, and developing a roadmap towards compatible biofuel specifications.' They note that nuclear energy can also help reach these objectives in countries which decide to make use of it.
In a section entitled 'Complementary Goals' for 'clean energy development and commercialization in the near and medium-term', the joint statement lists work on both sides of the Atlantic on advanced technologies (clean coal and capture and storage of CO2), renewable energy and energy efficiency. The EU lists its views as set out in the EU's Energy Policy Action Plan (explained in detail in this newsletter when the 'Energy and Climate Change' package was adopted by the Commission in January 2007, see EUROPE 9341, and the March 2007 European Council, see EUROPE 9383). The US notes the Bush Administration's commitments to develop new energy technology (building the first zero CO2 emission fossil fuel power station by 2012); financial incentives to encourage private sector investment in clean technology (on top of the billion dollars already spent, the US government will allocate USD 650 mil this year and USD 200 mil will be granted for the development of CO2 capture and storage technology); promoting renewables (adopting an action plan to cut fuel consumption by 20% by 2017 in the United States through massive use of biofuels; and promoting energy efficiency (planning to cut energy intensity by 30% by 2015 based on the 2003 energy consumption figures).
Two sections entitled 'Key Priorities' and 'Work Program of Cooperation' explain the priorities identified by both sides for boosting transatlantic cooperation as part of a clean energy and climate change partnership. In no particular order, these include the development of clean energy technologies, improving energy efficiency (where cooperation will be governed by the ENERGY STAR deal) and the development of second generation biofuel. Finally, in a section on transatlantic research, both sides note that they will try to reach an energy R&D cooperation agreement as part of the bilateral Science and Technology agreement. Alongside the areas already cited, this will also cover hydrogen. (eh)