EU sets carbon trade-off targets

The Australian
March 10, 2007
David Charter and Rory Watson, Brussels

EUROPEAN Union leaders last night agreed on a package of measures aimed at making the bloc the world leader in tackling climate change, including a binding 20 per cent target on the use of renewable fuels.

The landmark agreement - reached after two days of negotiations - commits Europe to taking the lead in fighting global warming by setting targets to cut greenhouse gases and ensures that a fifth of the bloc's energy comes from green power sources, such as wind turbines and solar panels.

"'It has been possible to, as it were, open the door to a new dimension of European co-operation for years to come in the area of energy and combating climate change," German Chancellor Angela Merkel said as she announced the plan, which also requires greenhouse gas emissions to be cut by at least 20 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

The 20 per cent target for use of renewable energy is a massive hike from the current figure of just over 6 per cent. Ms Merkel said there was still time to reduce the overall increase in global temperatures to below 2C. "We could avoid what could well be human calamity," Ms Merkel said.

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the agreement showed that Europe was able to take important and firm steps on global warming. "We can say to the rest of the world: Europe is taking the lead - you should join us in fighting climate change," he said.

Ms Merkel, a former environment minister and the holder of the EU's revolving presidency, had implored her fellow European leaders to give her a strong hand at the next G8 meeting in June in Germany, when she will ask world leaders to join a post-Kyoto framework. British Prime Minister Tony Blair said that, in addition to the EU move, a G8 deal on a framework for a global agreement would create "the best chance" of getting the US, China and India to tackle climate change. "These are a set of groundbreaking, bold, ambitious targets for the European Union," Mr Blair said. "It gives Europe a clear leadership position on this crucial issue facing the world."

The deal is a compromise between nations that had demanded mandatory targets on clean energy, and eastern European nations led by Poland and Slovakia, which had said they did not have the money to meet such high targets for developing costly alternatives. Those nations said they preferred to stay with cheaper but more polluting options such as coal and oil.

While setting an overall 20per cent target for the bloc's use of renewable energy, the agreement also says individual targets will be allowed for each of the 27 EU members. Business leaders expressed disquiet at the new regulations and have warned that unilateral goals will hasten the international decline of European industry. Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, the head of the BusinessEurope employers' group, said: "In terms of binding obligations on renewables, nobody has the foggiest idea what the costs can be."