Brussels, 13/11/2007 (Agence Europe) - Speaking at the World Energy Council's 20th World Energy Congress in Rome on 11-15 November 2007, Jose Manuel Barroso, the president of the European Commission, stressed the EU27's commitment to taking on board the energy and climate challenges of the twenty-first century. He said that the EU would be using five pillars to this end, namely increasing EU energy efficiency and saving 20% of energy by 2020; tripling renewable energy use to 20% by 2020 and requiring a 10% biofuel component in vehicle fuel by 2020; substantially increasing the amount of clean hydrocarbons consumed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions; strengthening the EU's carbon market, which already covers 50% of EU energy emissions and represents a market value of more than €20bn; and forging an open and competitive internal energy market.
The EU's pledge to combat global warming added wind to Jose Manuel Barroso's sails when it came to highlighting the EU's call, under the spotlight of the world's media, for big emerging economies like China and India to make new pledges: 'New, flexible and fair commitments from developing countries to reduce the greenhouse gas emission intensity of their economic development,' ahead of a new international agreement taking over from the Kyoto Protocol that runs out in 2012. Jose Manuel Barroso continued: 'Let me make clear: we do not expect countries like India and China to make the same commitments as we do. But we do expect them to decouple energy consumption and growth, in line with our common but differentiated responsibilities. But we do want to cooperate with developing countries to strengthen their contribution to the global reduction effort. By taking bold acting now, they can enjoy a win-win situation, because sensible policies to fight climate change also have real non-climate benefits.' The European Parliament's temporary committee on climate change recently regretted that China was not convinced of the need for emerging economies to have quantitative targets for tackling global warming (see EUROPE 9541). The World Energy Congress is being held less than three weeks ahead of the United Nations' crucial climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, on 3-14 December 2007.
Another key point of the president of the European Commission's address was the controversial issue of nuclear power. Jose Manuel Barroso said 'the combined challenges of competitiveness, global energy security and climate change give rise to a new debate about the future of nuclear energy'. Beforehand, several energy company representatives had sung the praises of nuclear energy. The CEO of French nuclear power giant Areva, Anne Lauvergeon, said that Areva was the world's leading nuclear company, which no longer needs to advertise its reactors because demand is rising so fast. She said that arguing in favour of nuclear power was no longer a problem because so many negotiations were under way. It is necessary to develop atomic power, said the CEO of Italian energy company Edison (controlled by EDF), Umberto Quadrino, although Italy abandoned nuclear power in 1987. Barroso prudently commented that it was up to the member states to decide whether or not to use nuclear power. This is a controversial subject of division on which the EU is split, with Germany, Belgium and Sweden planning to move away from nuclear power. Austria is firmly against it, largely because of the problem of what to do with radioactive waste and the tragic fall-out from the Chernobyl disaster. Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, however, are planning to build a new nuclear power plant at Ignalina.
Rex Tillerson, CEO of the world's biggest oil company, ExxonMobil, admitted that nuclear power was now more competitive than oil. Lauvergeon confirmed nuclear's competitiveness but put this into perspective by highlighting the high costs of nuclear power in the event of delays in the extremely long process of building nuclear power plants. For this reason, she called for a certification authority in the EU to avoid Areva having to certify its power plants in every country. Another participant in Rome, where the Green Party organised an alternative Congress, was Luxembourg Green MEP Claude Turmes, who said: 'Mrs Lauvergeon is bluntly lying to this gathering of business leaders and politicians, when she says that nuclear energy is competitive today. The simple fact that Areva is desperately pushing the US government and the EU for even higher state aid to allow the survival of the sector speaks for itself. Mrs Lauvergeon's speech today is well orchestrated, with a push by France to impose nuclear technology as part of the EU-African development aid, as shall be decided in Lisbon in December. I call upon EU citizens and governments to veto this unacceptable attempt by Areva's commercial representative, Mr Nicolas Sarkozy.' (E.H.)