EU to cut greenhouse gas emissions

The European Commission said today the EU must reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% below 1990 levels by 2020 to limit global warming and prevent serious damage caused by climate change.

Presenting its new energy strategy, the EU’s executive arm said global cuts of 30% will help ensure temperatures rise no more than 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.

This target is “both technically feasible and economically affordable” if action is taken quickly, it said.

“The EU should take the lead by committing autonomously to reduce its own emissions by at least 20% by 2020,” the Commission said.

“As an essential step toward this long-term reduction, the group of developed countries should cut their emissions to an average of 30% below 1990 levels by 2020 under a new global climate change agreement.”

The EU energy strategy will be debated by environment ministers of the bloc’s 27 nations on February 20 in Brussels.

Climate change is at the centre of the new policy, which calls for the end of dependence on oil and gas and increasing the share of renewable sources, such as wind power and biofuels, to 20% by 2020.

“It’s the first time the Commission has decided on binding targets for renewables,” said EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs.

The EU executive said a 50% reduction in emissions is needed by 2050 if temperatures are to rise no more than 2 degrees Celsius, “which in turn should prevent massive and irreversible disruption of the global climate system.”

“This will send a clear signal on how seriously we take the future of our planet,” said European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

But environmentalists criticised the new energy strategy as not ambitious enough, stressing that the proposal to cut emissions in the 27-nation EU by 20% by 2020 is 10% below what it seeks for the rest of the world.

“The Commission’s proposals on emissions are nothing short of climate crime, betraying the future generations of EU citizens,” said Green EU lawmaker Satu Hassi of Finland.

“Far from giving leadership, the Commission is proposing that Europe abdicate all ambition on reducing emissions and set a target of a paltry 20 percent, in spite of overwhelming scientific evidence suggesting greater global reductions are necessary.”

The EU has repeatedly called on the United States and other major world polluters to join its fight for reducing emissions.

The United States has refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol, which requires 35 industrial nations to cut their global-warming gases by an average 5% below 1990 levels by 2012, when the accord expires.

The US contends the 1997 accord would slow its economy intolerably, and that it should have required reductions by poorer but fast-growing nations, such as China and India.

The commission also called for increasing the EU budget for climate, energy and research, and for improving the EU’s emissions trading program – a cornerstone of an EU push to reduce greenhouse gas releases by 8% below 1990 levels by 2012 as it promised under the Kyoto Protocol.

The 8% target will only be met if some countries overachieve on their individual targets to make up for the laggards, according to the European Environment Agency.

The Republic of Ireland, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Italy, Portugal and Spain are not on track to meet their individual Kyoto targets. Sweden and Britain are the only nations from the old EU 15 that can meet their targets without implementing any additional measures.