The European Union put climate change at the heart of a broad new energy policy on Wednesday as it moved to boost renewable fuels, cut compensation and curb its dependence on foreign supplies of oil and gas, Reuters reported.
With oil imports hit by the latest energy dispute involving Russia, Brussels laid out a vision of a common energy policy for the 27-nation bloc with proposals including a recommendation to scale back the dominance of energy companies.
Energy has been at the heart of the EU since it was born as the European Coal and Steel Community half a century ago but policy remains largely in the hands of national governments.
“Climate change is among the gravest environmental, social and economic challenges facing mankind, and it is already happening,” the Commission said in a statement on its website.
“Urgent action is needed to limit climate change to a manageable level and prevent serious physical and economic damage,” the statement said.
This week’s dispute between Russia and Belarus, which has hit oil exports to several EU nations, has also highlighted the bloc’s vulnerability to foreign producers of fuel.
The fight against global warming featured strongly in the plan announced by the Commission and which will also require approval by EU governments.
The EU executive called on the 27-nation EU to cut its emissions of greenhouse gases by at last 20 percent by 2020, compared with 1990 levels.
That goes beyond an existing target for an eight percent cut in emissions from 1990 levels in the 2008-2012 period adopted by the 15 members of the EU before its 2004 enlargement and which several countries are already struggling to meet.
Brussels also challenged developed nations around the world, including the EU, to cut emissions by 30 percent by 2020.
The EU has repeatedly said the United States-the world’s biggest polluter-and other major economies will have to join in to make the fight against climate change successful.
Environmentalists criticized the Commission for setting an internal target below the one it seeks for the world as a whole.
The Commission’s report said shutting nuclear reactors will make cutting the greenhouse gas emissions harder.
Germany’s government is phasing out nuclear power production in the country, although Chancellor Angela Merkel has suggested that plan might have to be reconsider.
The Commission also proposed that 20 percent of EU power should come from renewable sources, such as wind, by 2020. That compares with an existing target of 12 percent by 2010 which the bloc is likely to miss. The new plan also says biofuels should account for a minimum of 10 percent of fuel used by vehicles by 2020.
On one of the most sensitive items, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels favored splitting up the generation and distribution businesses of power companies as the best way to inject more competition into the sector.
But given German and French opposition to that idea, which would have big consequences for their dominant power groups, the Commission would offer a second option of utilities handing over management of grid businesses while retaining ownership.
However, countries that do not agree to split-off proposal would face more intrusive regulation, and EU source said.
(Reuters, 10/01/2007)