Brussels (Platts)--7Dec2007
EU member states must adopt binding national sectoral targets for final
use of renewable power and renewable heating and cooling to help meet the EU's
2020 renewables target, according to a draft of the European Commission's
forthcoming EU renewables law seen by Platts Wednesday.
"These targets shall be consistent with their overall target and their
target for the share of renewable energy sources in transport," says the
draft.
In March EU leaders backed EC proposals for a binding 10% biofuels share
by 2020 in each member state, as well as an overall binding EU target of 20%
renewables by 2020 to be broken down into 27 binding national targets.
The draft law specifies that the renewables' share must be measured as
final use, and that only renewable heat and power produced within the EU can
be counted. Imported biofuels would have to meet environmental sustainability
criteria to be counted.
The 2020 target would mean increasing the EU's present 8.5% final use
renewables' share by 11.5 percentage points over the next 12 years.
NATIONAL TARGETS BASED PARTLY ON GDP
The draft seen by Platts does not include the EC's proposed overall
national targets. But EC energy official Tom Howes told a Brussels conference
late last month that the national targets would be based on a flat rate
increase of 5.75 percentage points for all 27 member states, with the division
of the remaining 5.75 percentage points determined by national gross domestic
product.
"This is certainly fair," he said. "We think it stands a good chance of
getting through the EU council [of member states] still recognisable in the
end."
EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs is visiting member states to
explain the methodology used for setting the national targets, but an EC
source stressed that the EC was "not negotiating targets."
Piebalgs told Platts last month that the differences between member
states and the EC on the targets were "only a couple of percentage points."
DRAFT SETS INTERMEDIATE TARGETS
Member states would also have to meet intermediate overall targets, says
the draft. In 2014, their renewables share would have to be at least their
2005 share plus 51% of the difference between this share and their 2020
target. This increases to 66% of the difference in 2016 and 83% of the
difference in 2018.
Member states would also have to meet a fixed intermediate target of at
least 6.5% for renewables' share in transport in 2012, says the draft.
Member states would have to set out their national sectoral targets in
national action plans, says the draft, along with the measures for achieving
them. These plans would have to be submitted to the EC by March 31, 2010 at
the latest.
The EC plans to adopt the final version of the draft EU renewables law,
including the national targets, January 23, 2008 as part of a wider climate
change package.
---Siobhan Hall, siobhan_hall@platts.com
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