EU to boost renewables even without binding target: EU source

Brussles (Platts)--6Mar2007

The burden sharing needed to meet binding greenhouse gas emission cuts at
EU level would boost renewables even without a separate binding target, a
senior EU diplomatic source told journalists in Brussels Tuesday.

EU leaders are expected to agree on a binding unilateral EU target to cut
emissions by 20% from 1990 levels by 2020, and by 30% if other industrial
countries join in, at the European Council in Brussels March 8-9.

But the jury is still out on agreeing a separate binding target of 20% of
the EU's final energy use to come from renewable sources by 2020.

The emissions cuts were not controversial, said the source, who did not
wish to be named. But they would only make sense if the EU said how it planned
to achieve them.

"Even without a binding target, renewables will play a central role [in
cutting emissions]," he said. "There is no way of avoiding the idea of
increasing renewables in the EU."

EU energy ministers in February recommended a non-binding 20% renewables
target to EU leaders. "This is not an insignificant figure," said the source.
The European Commission, which wants a binding renewables target, is to work
on how any such EU-level target should be shared among member states. It plans
to produce formal proposals for a new EU renewables law later this year. "Even
if the target is not binding, it's a steer for future work," said the source.

Germany, which holds the rotating six-month EU presidency until June
2007, has not given up yet on a binding renewables targets, the diplomatic
source said Tuesday. But he did not have "great hopes of a huge step forward"
at the European Council.

The commission is also to work on how the EU emissions cut target should
be shared among member states. "We can't expect to agree the burden sharing at
the European Council because there are so many technical issues," said the
source.

He expected the debate on this to last two years or more. "At Kyoto,
burden sharing was the last aspect to be agreed," he said.

Germany, which also holds the rotating presidency of the G8 group of
industrialized countries, plans to present the EU's offer of unilateral and
multilateral emissions cuts at the G8 summit in June, said the source.

--Siobhan Hall, siobhan_hall@platts.com