BRUSSELS - Any binding European Union target for renewable energy sources must take account of the role of nuclear power and clean coal in national energy mixes, French President Jacques Chirac told EU leaders on Thursday.
A dispute over whether to set a binding target of 20 percent of EU energy consumption from renewable sources by 2020 was the main open question at a summit due to adopt a long-term strategy on climate change and energy policy.
In comments relayed by French officials, Chirac said it would be "more coherent" to set a target for low-carbon energy than the binding objective for renewables sought by the European Commission.
"I approve the setting of a binding European target for renewable energies," he said, noting that France was the biggest producer of such energy today by volume.
But he added that the sharing-out of that goal among the 27 EU countries should take account of nuclear power, from which France generates some 70 percent of its electricity.
"At the very least, the burden sharing on renewables must take account of the place of low-carbon energy -- nuclear and clean coal -- in our national energy choices," he said.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, chairing the summit, said earlier that renewables and nuclear power should be kept separate, not least because renewables involved new technology which needed special help to become commercially viable.
Any endorsement of nuclear energy would be acutely politically sensitive in countries such as Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Italy which have either renounced or agreed to phase out atomic power.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
