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MONTREAL, Quebec, CA, December 14, 2005
(Refocus Weekly)
Renewable energies are “key instruments to win
the battle against climate change” and are a ready-to-go technology,
says the environmental commissioner in Europe.
“Renewable energy needs a long-term and stable policy framework,”
Stavros Dimas told a side event at the COP11 conference in Montreal.
Next year, member countries will discuss new targets for 2020, and
the European Parliament has already called for 25% of total energy
consumption on the continent to come from renewables by 2020.
“This sounds ambitious, but I consider it fully realistic and it is
clearly this order of magnitude that the EU should be considering,”
he says. Current targets for 2010 are for renewables to increase
from the current 6% to 12% of primary energy consumption while green
power should rise from 14% to 21% during that period.
“This approach is starting to deliver results; renewables represent
one of the fastest growing sectors in the EU, with an annual
turnover of some 15 billion euros,” he explained. “Costs continue to
drop significantly, making more renewable energy technologies
affordable and competitive. In environmental terms, the rise of
renewables will have cut the EU’s greenhouse gas emissions by an
estimated 170 to 200 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2010.”
Renewables offer “real potential for economic development,”
particularly for developing countries that do not have ready access
to energy supply, and he says the environmental and economic
benefits “are the driving forces for the European Union’s renewable
energy policy.” The European Commission recently took “another
important step for renewable energy” by adopting an “ambitious”
continental biomass action plan which includes measures to promote
biomass in green heat, green power and green fuel, and addresses
biomass supply, financing and research.
The plan is expected to double the use of biomass to 150 million ton
of oil equivalents in 2010.
“We should also look beyond our borders; renewable energy should be
an integral element of our international collaboration,” he
explained. The European Emissions Trading Scheme includes a budget
of Euro 2.7 billion to buy emission credits which is a “significant
amount that could provide a real incentive for deploying and
developing renewable energy technologies in developing countries.”
The European Union Energy Initiative places a major focus on
renewables, backed with Euro 220 million that will be available
starting next year, and the 88-country Johannesburg Renewable Energy
Coalition is designed to foster international co-operation
agreements to move renewables forward, he added.
“Now is the time to build a strong international framework for
renewables to help achieve a global breakthrough,” he concluded. The
UN Commission on Sustainable Development will focus on energy in
2006 and 2007, and this is “an important opportunity - we must seize
it,” he said. A meeting to be held in Dubai in February will produce
a joint statement to that CSD which will outline the main
deliverables for renewables that are expected by 2007.
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