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The EU and energy efficiency

20 November 2009, 22:47 CET
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The now-ratified Lisbon Treaty says that there will, in the future, be a common energy policy, but this is unlikely to have much practical impact. Yet the EU has already set binding and enforceable targets on renewables, has significant regulatory powers which will be crucial for widespread CCS deployment. It also has money, which will be important both for renewables and for CCS demonstration. It has little role over nuclear energy. However, it should be doing much more on energy efficiency.

On renewables, most people at the conference I attended (from the Commission, the European Parliament, national parliaments and industry) seemed quite optimistic that the 20% targets by 2020 will be met, as long as the lagging countries with great renewables potential (for which read UK, though most were too diplomatic to say so) improve performance. The Commission must help with construction of a North Sea electricity grid, which could massively increase UK renewable installed capacity and also help The Netherlands, Germany, Denmark and Norway (not an EU member, but serious about climate control). It must also help construct a Mediterranean grid, to harness Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) from North Africa. Some people expressed concern that this would be seen as neo-colonialism. It could be, if European countries try to harness CSP in the Sahara without giving significant benefits to the communities and countries whose deserts will be used. However, CSP will provide significant money for community funds. It also involves boiling water. If seawater is boiled and then the vapour is collected, this provides freshwater, either for drinking or for irrigation, so potentially greening parts of the desert.

The EU has also agreed a target to increase energy efficiency by 20% by 2020. However, unlike the renewables target, this is not a binding target – just aspirational.  Aspirational  targets have little impact in the real world. The Commission is now suggesting making the target binding, with predictable hostility from national governments, who argue that this should be up to them. Allowing decisions to be made by the right tier of government is important, but not as important as taking the right decisions. Therefore, the target should definitely be made binding. Energy efficiency is the quickest way to reduce emissions, and will save money and save the lives of thousands of people who die from cold every winter. A massive energy efficiency programme could also create many new jobs.

By Stephen Tindale

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Climate change is the most serious issue ever to have faced humanity. Rightly, it is now high on the public, political, media and business agendas. However, too much of the discussion is still about what we should not be doing or what we should be against. There is not enough discussion or information on solutions - what we can and should do to minimise dangerous climate change, and what should be done to make us not only safer and more secure, but also richer and happier.


Stephen Tindale photoStephen Tindale (29 March 1963 – 1 July 2017) was a British environmentalist who was Executive Director of Greenpeace UK from 2000 to 2005. He was Director of The Alvin Weinberg Foundation, co-founder of the organisation Climate Answers, Associate Fellow at the Centre for European Reform and co-author of Repowering Communities with Prashant Vaze.