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Can EU deliver on promises to cut carbon emissions?
by Scott Gilbreath ~ October 4th, 2008
EU member states are in disarray over energy policy as the financial and political costs of cutting carbon emissions become evident.
JUST 18 months ago the European Union promised to save the world from climate change. A final plan to deliver on those promises must be finished soon. But it is in deep trouble.
The conclusions of the March 2007 summit proclaiming the EU’s “leading role” on climate change make for wistful reading today. They begin “Europe is currently enjoying an economic upswing,” and add that growth forecasts are “positive”. Back in that long-lost golden age, the EU’s leaders were in heroic mood. They offered binding promises known as the 20/20/20 pledges. By the year 2020, they would cut Europe’s carbon emissions by at least a fifth over 1990 levels; derive 20% of all energy from renewable sources; and make energy-efficiency savings of 20%.
The heroic mood is gone now. In March 2007 Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and chairman of the summit, was a green champion. Today she sounds like a lobbyist for German business, listing the industries that must be shielded from the full costs of her package. In truth, almost every country has found reasons why the climate-change promises may be impossible to meet in their current form.
Many European countries now see the expense of cutting carbon emissions as exorbitant. Moreover, the most convenient source of clean-burning natural gas is Russia and, after the recent war in Georgia, eastern Europeans are loath to increase dependence on Russian energy.
h/t: Greenie Watch
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October 5th, 2008 at 07:26 PM
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