European Union Urged to Go Beyond Kyoto Target
BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 3, 2000 (ENS) - A coalition of
European environmental groups and renewable energy and energy
conservation industries is urging the 15 member European Union to
strengthen its policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Heat trapping gases like carbon dioxide (CO2) are building up in
the atmosphere as increasing amounts of coal, oil and gas are
burnt for energy. Under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, an add-on to the
United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, the
European Union committed to an eight percent reduction in
greenhouse gas emissions against a 1990 baseline emissions
figure.
On Friday, a coalition of groups led by the Worldwide Fund for
Nature listed measures that it claims could cut one third off the
European Union's CO2 emissions by 2010, greatly exceeding the
eight percent commitment.
The coalition urged the European Union to take firmer action and
go beyond its Kyoto target.
Proposed measures include the following:
* The draft European Union directive on renewable energy should
be strengthened by making national renewables targets mandatory
and by adding requirements in the heat and transport sectors.
Even without these new elements, the directive could save up to
200 million tonnes of CO2 by 2010, the coalition says.
* The EU should pass a new law to enforce national legislation on
buildings' energy efficiency. It should require retrofitting of
existing buildings and establish tough standards for new
buildings. The potential CO2 savings are put at 300 million
tonnes.
* The European Union target of doubling cogenerated heat and
power to 18 percent of electricity consumption by 2010 should be
made binding through a new directive. Potential CO2 savings are
estimated at 150 million tonnes.
* New controls on power stations should limit to 20 years the
lifetime of any installation with an efficiency lower than 45
percent and CO2 emissions higher than 400g per kilowatt hour of
electricity. CO2 savings are estimated at up to 100 million
tonnes.
* Mandatory European Union-wide benchmarking technologies should
be introduced for heavy industries to force two percent annual
improvements in energy efficiency. This would save an extra 100
million tonnes of CO2, the groups say.
* Environmental pricing should be introduced in European
transport markets, including a European kilometer charge for
heavy goods vehicles and a European Union framework for urban
road pricing, plus greater investment in public transport and
alternative fuels. Estimated emission savings are 100 to 200
million tonnes of CO2.
The coalition argues that specific policies and measures like
these should form the focus of the European Union's efforts to
reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The groups raised concerns
over what they called uncertain policies such as geological
carbon dioxide injection, or carbon sinking, and the 1998
voluntary commitment by carmakers to reduce average CO2
emissions.
Such policies fail to yield real reductions in emissions and
should be excluded, the coalition said. Emissions trading has a
role to play, but should not be the European climate change
programme's main thrust, it added. A "clear and stringent" legal
framework is advocated for any voluntary agreements aimed at
meeting climate objectives.
Overall, the groups say, the scope for cutting emissions through
energy efficiency and renewable energy measures "shows clearly
that neither nuclear power nor plant trees [carbon sinks] are
needed for CO2 cuts in Europe."
SOURCE: Environment News Service (ENS) 2000
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