The European
Renewable Energy Council (EREC) launched a publication today entitled ‘Hat-trick
2030 – An integrated climate and energy framework’ at
the Renewable Energy House in Brussels, ahead of a meeting of Energy and
Environment Ministers in Dublin early next week.
“The renewable energy sector
needs predictability and stability beyond 2020. This is best provided for by a
binding 2030 renewable energy target and needs to be combined with an energy
efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction target”, said
Rainer Hinrich-Rahlwes, President of EREC.In the report, EREC set out the
reasons why European climate and energy policy should be based on a hat-trick
of targets for renewable energy, energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG)
reduction, as this yields more benefits than a one-legged policy based on a
supposedly ‘technology-neutral’ GHG-only approach.
“The
message is simple: if you want to lower costs, create jobs, replace fossil fuel
imports and drive innovation, competitiveness and investment, then a hat-trick
of climate and energy goals works best”, said Hinrichs-Rahlwes.
“The
successful economies of the next decades will be those which decrease resource
use and greenhouse gas emissions while creating new businesses through
technology leadership, technology deployment and increasing employment the way
renewable technologies do”, concluded Hinrichs-Rahlwes.