Power Engineering - Brussels sets out target on emissions

10 January 2007 - Europe has set what officials on Wednesday called the world's most ambitious goal for fighting global warming - cutting, by 2020, greenhouse gas emissions to 20 per cent below the level of 1990.

"Time is running out" to limit the world temperature rise to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, warned Stavros Dimas, the environment commissioner. Beyond that, he said, there would be a much greater danger of irreversible and possibly catastrophic climate change.

"What action the world takes over the next decade or so will determine whether we reach this objective or not," said Dimas.

The European Union (EU) is prepared to go further and would increase its target to 30 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020 as part of a deal with the developed world. It also wants developing countries to agree targets, a distant prospect at the moment. Under its Kyoto protocol commitment, the EU is cutting emissions by 8 per cent by 2012.

UN leaders said the plan might spur stalled UN talks on fighting global warming and encourage outsiders such as the US and China to do more. "This is a crucial signal to unlock the current situation where countries are saying 'I'll wait and see what you do first'," Achim Steiner, head of the UN Environment Programme in Nairobi, told Reuters.

Environmentalists have denounced the Commission's action as too weak. Friends of the Earth called it "feeble" and WWF said it was "a small step" in the right direction.

The UK, Germany and the European parliament have called for a 30 per cent EU target. Eluned Morgan, a British Labour MEP, said: "This is a missed opportunity...you don't start negotiating by giving your final figure."

Leaders of the 27 EU states will meet in Brussels in March to discuss the plans.

A Commission study paper released on Wednesday echoed the findings of the Stern report of the UK government that acting immediately was inexpensive compared with the huge cost of dealing with change such as drought and rising sea levels later.

Apart from its emissions trading scheme, which covers the 50 per cent of emissions from fixed installations such as power plants, the Commission wants specific measures. It may also expand the scheme from carbon dioxide to include methane and nitrous oxide, produced by coal mines, agriculture and cars.

It wants biofuels to make up 10 per cent of vehicle fuel supply by 2020, up from 2 per cent now. That could generate 300,000 jobs in the countryside, the Commission said.

Renewable energy should account for 20 per cent of electricity supply by then, more than double its current share. That would cost €18bn ($23.4bn) annually if oil prices were $48 a barrel.

Coal and nuclear power will also play a key role. The Commission wants them to maintain their 30 per cent share each of electricity generation. Andris Piebalgs, energy commissioner, is backing EU-wide research into a new generation of safer reactors, saying it was the cheapest source of power free of greenhouse gases.

Coal has also become ever more important as the EU frets over its dependence on imported fuel. It is cheap and plentiful, with 255 years of reserves under EU soil. Mr Piebalgs believes scientists are close to a breakthrough in carbon sequestration, which would see emissions captured and stored.

A Eurobarometer poll released this week showed 20 per cent of EU citizens in favour of nuclear power and 80 per cent in favour of renewable energy.

Add RSS Feed