EU leaders back binding 20% renewables target in draft text

Brussels (Platts)--9Mar2007

EU leaders have backed the European Commission's recommendation for a
binding 20% EU renewables target by 2020 in the latest draft of European
Council conclusions seen by Platts Friday.

The draft has been revised to include more detail on how such a target
would be shared among the 27 EU member states, as German Chancellor Angela
Merkel told journalists late Thursday night.

The revised text says that the national overall targets should be
developed "with due regard to a fair and adequate allocation taking account of
different national starting points, including the existing level of renewable
energies and energy mix."

The text also adds that the European Council "notes the EC's assessment
of the contribution of nuclear energy in meeting the growing concerns about
safety of energy supply and CO2 emission reductions while ensuring that
nuclear safety and security are paramount in the decision-making process."

In yet another addition, the European Council invites the EC to analyze
the potential cross-border synergies and interconnections for reaching the
overall renewables target, to help those countries and regions largely
isolated from the EU energy market.

LATEST DRAFT STILL BACKS UNILATERAL CO2 CUT

The latest draft still backs the EC's recommendation that the EU commit
to cut unilaterally its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by
2020, and by 30% if other industrialized countries join in.

The leaders want to see collective cuts of 60% to 80% by 2050 compared
with 1990, and underline the central, long-term role of the EU's emissions
trading scheme in reducing emissions.

The decisions come in the run-up to the international talks on a global
post-Kyoto agreement, scheduled to start later this year, where the EU hopes
to position itself as a leader on the issue.

The leaders have been meeting in Brussels Thursday and Friday to discuss
the EC's raft of European energy policy and climate change papers adopted
January, before adopting a "comprehensive energy action plan" for 2007-2009 in
the council conclusions.

The EC is to take account of this action plan--a declaration of political
will--in preparing its formal proposals for new EU energy laws, which it
hopes to present this autumn.

The final conclusions are to be adopted at the end of the meeting,
expected around lunchtime.

--Siobhan Hall, siobhan_hall@platts.com