Britain, France and Germany urge 30% cut in EU Emissions
Britain, France and Germany are pushing the European Union to make a wider commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the next 10 years. The British Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne - joined by his French and German counterparts, Jean-Louis Borloo and Norbert Roettgen respectively, spoke of the need for a 30 percent reduction in emissions by 2020, as opposed to the current target of 20 percent. They emphasized that becoming more energy efficient and eco-friendly would aid economic recovery and put Europe at the forefront of tackling the rate of global warming.
The recession helped to decrease emissions in EU states by as much as 11% in the traded sector, which was due to carbon pricing being too low to initiate major investments, an article described. The 20 percent target is regarded as lacking the sufficiency and means to drive Europe towards low carbon energy, at a time when carbon is costing EUR14 per metric ton according to the European Emissions Trading Scheme. Creating a target of 30 percent would mean investors would have more certainty regarding low-carbon projects as governments would be forced to adapt new ‘green’ policies aimed at reducing the use of non-renewable energy.
While sticking to a 20 percent may prevent Europe from making the most out of low carbon energy investment opportunities, many business officials in Europe believe that a ‘unilateral’ increase in targets would hinder economic recovery. Folker Franz, who works on climate change policy for BusinessEurope said that while there was evidence to show that other countries such as the United States and China were becoming increasingly competitive on the ‘green’ agenda, these countries did not have a specific target to cut emissions.
Meanwhile, the European Commission called the recent proposal a ‘positive contribution’ to the debate regarding climate change, however it also estimated that achieving a 30 percent reduction target by 2020 post-recession would actually be more expensive than achieving a 20 percent reduction pre-recession.
The British government is currently proposing to create a special ’Green Investment Bank'which would encourage further low-carbon initiatives, if you want to check out what businesses are currently doing to curb their greenhouse emissions, the Enigin PLC employee blogs are a great place to start, not to mention an interesting read.