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| NEWS |
| 15-03-2006 |
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Europe suggests targets for renewables beyond 2020 |
BRUSSELS, Belgium, March 15, 2006 (Refocus Weekly) Europe should prepare a new ‘road map’ for renewable energy sources, with targets beyond 2020, recommends a proposed continental policy.
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Europe has sufficient biomass to avoid harming the environment
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“The completion of the internal market, the fight against climate change and security of supply, are common energy challenges that call for common solutions,” says energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs in releasing the major green paper of the European Commission. “It is time for a new European energy policy.”
The paper, ‘A European Strategy for Secure, Competitive & Sustainable Energy for Europe,’ invites comments on six specific priority areas, containing 20 suggestions for action. Renewables are included in the fourth priority, where the EC suggests a series of measures to address the challenges of global warming.
The report suggests possible contents for an action plan on energy efficiency to be adopted this year, which will identify the measures necessary to save 20% of the energy that it would otherwise consume by 2020. It proposes that the EU prepare a new road map for renewables on the continent, with possible targets to 2020 and beyond “to provide a stable investment climate to generate more competitive renewable energy in Europe.”
The green paper outlines how a European Energy Policy could meet the three core objectives of energy policy: sustainable development, competitiveness, and security of supply. It warns that development of a continental energy policy will be “a long-term challenge” that will require a strategic energy review be presented to Council and Parliament on a regular basis, covering all energy policy issues.
Other priority areas identified in the report include the need for new measures such as a continental energy grid code and a priority interconnection plan. A more sustainable, efficient and diverse energy mix will require a strategic review that covers all aspects of energy policy and analyzes all the “advantages and drawbacks of different sources of energy, from renewable to coal and nuclear.”
“Energy efficient and low carbon technologies constitute a rapidly growing international market that will be worth billions of Euros in the coming years,” the report explains. “A strategic energy technology plan ... will ensure that European industries are world leaders in this new generation of technologies and processes.”
It also stresses the need for a common external energy policy, to ensure that Europe speaks with a single voice in the international arena in the areas of growing energy demand, high and volatile prices, increasing import dependency and climate change. Depending on a “very widespread public consultation,” the Commission will propose a series of concrete measures.
“The EU leads the world in demand management, in promoting new and renewable forms of energy, and in the development of low carbon technologies,” the paper notes. “If the EU backs up a new common policy with a common voice on energy questions, Europe can lead the global search for energy solutions.”
To ensure that global greenhouse gas emissions should peak before 2025 and then drop by 50% compared to 1990 levels, “this huge challenge means that Europe must act now, in particular on energy efficiency and renewable energy,” it adds. “Action on renewables and energy efficiency, besides tackling climate change, will contribute to security of energy supply and help limit the EU’s growing dependence on imported energy. It could also create many high-quality jobs in Europe and maintain Europe’s technological leadership in a rapidly growing global sector.”
“Since 1990, the EU has been engaged in an ambitious and successful plan to become world leader in renewable energy,” and has installed wind capacity that is equivalent to 50 coal-fired power stations while the continent’s renewable energy market has annual revenue of Euro 15 billion, employs 300,000 and is a major exporter. “Renewable energy is now starting to compete on price with fossil fuels.”
The EU wants the share of green power to reach 21% by 2010, while 5.75% of all petrol and diesel should be green fuels but, “under current trends, the EU will miss both targets by 1-2 percentage points,” it notes. “For renewable energy to fulfil its potential, the policy framework needs to be supportive and in particular to stimulate increasing competitiveness of such energy sources while fully respecting the competition rules.”
Off-shore wind, wave and tidal energy will need positive encouragement and the “full potential of renewable energy will only be realised through a long-term commitment to develop and install renewable energy,” it explains. A long-term road map for renewables would include a renewed effort to meet existing targets, a new Directive on green heating and cooling, and initiatives to bring clean and renewable energy sources closer to markets.
Europe has an urgent need for investment to meet growing energy demand and to replace aging infrastructure, and the paper estimates that Euro 1,000 billion will be needed over the next 20 years. “Unless we can make domestic energy more competitive, in the next 20 to 30 years around 70 % of the Union’s energy requirements, compared to 50% today, will be met by imported products, some from regions threatened by insecurity,” it explains.
Global demand for energy is increasing, with world demand (and CO2 emissions) expected to rise by 60% by 2030. Global oil consumption has increased by 20% since 1994, and demand is projected to grow by 1.6% per year. Oil and gas prices have doubled in Europe over the past two years, with electricity prices following, and increasing global demand for fossil fuels and stretched supply chains will keep prices high.
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