Green energy target eludes EU

Age
Wednesday 7/3/2007 Page: 15

Europe splits on 20% renewables goal

EUROPEAN Union foreign ministers have failed to agree on whether to set binding targets for use of renewable energy sources, setting up a potential clash when European Union leaders meet this week. Diplomats said almost half the 27 member states opposed a drive by the EU's president, Germany, to fix a mandatory goal for solar, wind and hydro-electric power to back Europe's ambition to lead the world in fighting climate change.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said ministers had narrowed differences on other points but "the central point of difference is on the binding nature of the target for renewables. "This point remained open and will be decided at the summit on (Thursday and) Friday," he said.

Only Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Britain, Spain and Italy voiced strong support for a binding target of 20 per cent of energy consumption from renewables by 2020, diplomats said. France, heavily dependent on nuclear power, proposed setting a binding objective for "noncarbon and low-carbon energy", of which the renewables target would be just a part.

Dr Steinmeier said there was no agreement on that idea. Spanish European Affairs Minister Alberto Navarro said: "We think these are two different issues." Ministers endorsed an EU commitment to a 20 per cent cut in greenhouse gas emissions, rising to 30 per cent if other major industrialised and emerging powers join in. France and some other states are wary of binding renewables targets that would impinge on national strategies.

Some EU diplomats believe French President Jacques Chirac may yield in exchange for some recognition that France's nuclear power program helps cut carbon dioxide emissions. But endorsement of nuclear energy is hugely sensitive in countries such as Germany, which plans to phase it out, and Austria, which is nuclear-free.

A possible compromise, diplomats said, could be to make the 20 per cent renewables target binding on the EU as a whole but not on individual states and negotiate burden-sharing later. Luxembourg Foreign Minister Jean Asselborn said the EU should aim for something stronger than vague guidelines. Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik said binding targets would be a sign that the EU was serious. "Europe has to become greener and credibly so. So benchmarking and setting ourselves goals and ambitions explicitly is a reasonable instrument," Dr Plassnik said.

Underlining the difficulties, an independent audit of British climate change policies said Britain will fall short of a 30 per cent cut in carbon emissions by 2020, not reaching that level till 2050, The Guardian reported. British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett played down the differences on renewables and stressed the significance of the overall EU energy strategy. "It will be a huge turning point for the European Union if we get an agreement and a huge turning point for the world community," she said.