EU Demand for Road Map to Climate Treaty Complicates Talks
November 28 2011 - The European Union’s demand for a road map leading to the next legally-binding global warming treaty raises a hurdle that may snarl negotiations at the United Nations climate conference this week.
The 27-nation bloc said it accounts for about 11 percent of global emissions and that it can’t act alone on emissions blamed for damaging the environment. Limits under the Kyoto Protocol expire next year. Japan, Russia and Canada have ruled out more commitments under that pact.
“We would only be politically able to move ahead into a second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol if there is at least a road map forward with others saying when they are going to come into the climate fight,” Artur Runge-Metzger, the European Commission’s lead negotiator, said yesterday at a press briefing opening the talks in Durban, South Africa.
The comments, from Kyoto’s strongest supporter in the industrial world, mark the bloc’s biggest set of preconditions and complicate talks to rescue the only international treaty on cutting greenhouse gases.
Developing countries oppose binding targets for themselves and view the continuation of Kyoto’s goals for richer nations as the key to the fight against climate change -- even without Japan, Russia and Canada onboard. They’re concerned the EU’s plan, calling for a treaty coming into force by 2020, as a way of delaying action.
> www.businessweek.com: Continue reading at "Islands Concerned"

EU 2050 Energy Road Map Sees Big Shift To Renewables
Brussels, October 18 2011 - The European Union must make a drastic shift from fossil fuels and derive more and more of its power from renewable sources, driving up electricity costs over the next two decades, according to a draft document seen by Reuters on Monday.
The 2050 energy road map to be published by the end of the year complements a 2050 low carbon road map released by the European Commission earlier this year, which seeks to chart a way to reducing carbon emissions by more than 80 percent by the middle of the century.
> planetark.org: EU 2050 Energy Road Map Sees Big Shift To Renewables

EU greenhouse gas emissions estimated to increase in 2010, but long-term decrease expected to continue
Brussels, October 7 2011 - The European Union remains well on track to achieve its Kyoto Protocol target for reducing greenhouse gas emissions despite a 2.4 % emissions increase in 2010, according to first estimates by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The 2010 increase follows a 7 % drop in 2009, largely due to the economic recession and growth of renewable energy generation.
> www.eea.europa.eu: EU greenhouse gas emissions estimated to increase in 2010, but long-term decrease expected to continue

MEPs reject tougher European emissions cuts
Strasbourg, July 5 /6 2011 - The European Parliament has today voted against raising the EU's emission reduction targets, from its current goal of reducing emissions 20 per cent against 1990 levels by 2020, to a 30 per cent cut by the same date.
The vote was initially scheduled for the end of last month, but was delayed until lunchtime today, when MEPs voted 347-258 against the proposal, with 62 abstentions.
> www.businessgreen.com: MEPs reject tougher European emissions cuts

Coal-friendly Poland: a bad climate leader for the EU

Brussels, June 30 / July 1st 2011 - If anybody in the EU had any illusions about how stern Poland's resistance to the EU climate policy can get, a reality check came on June 22.
Poland opposed all the other EU countries to block the conclusions of the EU environmental ministers council. Were it not for Poland's opposition, the council would have adopted stricter carbon emission targets, endorsing the commission's 2050 Roadmap calling for a 40 percent cut in carbon emissions by 2030, a 60 percent cut by 2040 and a 80 percent cut by 2050, compared to 1990 levels.
> euobserver.com: U.S. Coal-friendly Poland: a bad climate leader for the EU
> www.euractiv.com: Poland's EU commissioner in surprise climate denial move (June 23)
> www.telegraph.co.uk: Poland's EU budget commissioner in climate change controversy (Jul 01)

Experts question viability of 'timid' EU energy plan

Brussels, March 09 2011 - The European Commission finally launched its calculations on how to reach a 20% increase in energy efficiency by 2020 yesterday (8 March) but as it did so, senior policy figures were questioning the maths.
Stefan Scheuer, managing director of the SPRL environmental consultancy and former policy director at the European Environmental Bureau, predicted that the plan would fail "for the simple reason that it does not set itself specific sectoral or member state-relevant targets".
"The plan is far too timid to reassure us that it can achieve the 20% target," he told EurActiv.
> www.euractiv.com: Experts question viability of 'timid' EU energy plan
Related:
> EU backs away from 30% emissions target, leak shows (Mar 04)
> Denmark joins the fray over Europe's climate change targets (Feb 24)
> Less CO2-emissions could trigger more economic growth (Feb 21)

EU To Miss 2020 Efficiency Goal And Cull CO2 Permits

Oslo, March 09 2011 - The European Union will fall well short of a target to sharpen its energy efficiency by 2020 on current trends, its executive Commission said on Monday.
The Commission will stick to a plan to tighten the supply of emissions permits to its carbon market, in a proposal it will publish on Tuesday, as it tries to shore up action to fight climate change.
The Commission is due to publish its "Climate Roadmap to 2050" on Tuesday which will detail how to slash greenhouse gases by the middle of the century.
"The latest analysis shows we are on target for 10 percent," EU Commission spokesman for the climate division Isaac Valero Ladron told Reuters, referring to the non-binding goal to improve efficiency by a fifth compared with 1990 levels.
> planetark.org: EU To Miss 2020 Efficiency Goal And Cull CO2 Permits

EU backs away from 30% emissions target, leak shows

London / Brussels, March 04, 2011 - The European Commission will not call for tougher targets on carbon emmissions despite analysis showing doing so would be cost-effective. On Tuesday the commission will unveil a road-map on climate and energy policy.
Its own analysis said that an EU target of a 25% cut by 2020 could easily be met, and would be economically better than the existing target of 20%.
However, a senior diplomatic source has told BBC News that the final version will explicitly urge sticking at 20%.
> www.bbc.co.uk: EU backs away from 30% emissions target, leak shows

Denmark joins the fray over Europe's climate change targets

Copenhagen / Brussels, February, 14 / 24 2011 - The Danish government has stepped into the fray over Europe's climate change targets, boosting the attempts of a group of member states to opt for more ambitious emissions cuts.
Denmark set out its own vision for energy supplies in 2050, showing how the country could meet its aim of becoming independent of coal, oil and natural gas by the middle of the century. The country is already a leader in wind energy generation, and benefits from a well-developed electricity grid allowing it to share green power with some of its Nordic neighbours.
The Danes also issued a joint statement with Chris Huhne, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, who has spearheaded the push by several member states to toughen the EU's current greenhouse gas emissions targets.
> www.guardian.co.uk: Denmark joins the fray over Europe's climate change targets (2402)
> www.guardian.co.uk: Connie Hedegaard insists tougher carbon targets will boost European economy (1402)

EU climate target: Less CO2-emissions could trigger more economic growth

Potsdam, February 21 2011 - Increasing the EU’s 2020 greenhouse gas reduction target from 20% to 30% could help boosting European investments from 18% to 22% of GDP, leading to a GDP increase of up to €620bn ($840bn) and the creation of up to 6 millions additional jobs. These are the key findings of a report launched today.
> www.pik-potsdam.de: EU climate target: Less CO2-emissions could trigger more economic growth

EU 'low-carbon roadmap' aims for 25% cuts by 2020
Brussels, 17 February 2011 - Energy savings could slash greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by as early as 2020, according to a draft copy of the EU's long-awaited 'roadmap for moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050,' seen by EurActiv.
The EU's current goals for 2020 involve reducing emissions by 20% on 1990 levels, increasing the share of renewables in the bloc's energy mix by 20% and improving energy efficiency by 20%.
But in a twist to the debate over whether the economic crisis has made a 30% emissions reduction more realisable, the document says implementing the EU's stalling energy savings goals would reduce emissions by a further 5%.
> www.euractiv.com: EU 'low-carbon roadmap' aims for 25% cuts by 2020

EU could meet carbon targets more cheaply with gas than renewables, say gas firms

London, February 13 2011 - Europe could save €900bn (£762bn) and still hit its 2050 carbon reduction targets if it built fewer wind farms and more gas plants, a coalition of gas producers including Gazprom, Centrica and Qatar Petroleum has told the European commission.
> www.guardian.co.uk: EU could meet carbon targets more cheaply with gas than renewables, say gas firms

EU advisers urge funding reform
Brussels February 1, 2011 - Europe's multi-billion-euro research programme needs significant reform to slash bureaucracy and ensure continued support for cutting-edge science. That's the verdict of the top science advisory group to the European Commission (EC). As the executive body of the European Union (EU), the EC oversees the €50.5-billion (US$69.3-billion) Framework funding programme.
> www.nature.com: EU advisers urge funding reform
> www.nature.com: Simplification is essential (Feb 24 2010)

Nearly €8bn of EU energy savings fund lies unclaimed
Brussels, 04 January 2011 - As the EU struggles to meet its target of reducing energy consumption by 20% by 2020, energy efficiency grants from a reallocated fund worth eight billion euros are still going unclaimed, according to a top European Commission official who spoke to EurActiv in an interview.
> www.euractiv.com: Nearly €8bn of EU energy savings fund lies unclaimed

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