EU Energy Package: fine wrapping conceals lack of substance

Although the Commission acknowledges the need for urgent action to combat climate change, slash Europe's dependence on imported fuels and enhance competitiveness, its energy package will most likely reveal that the Commission cannot see beyond today's energy model, even while recognising that this model is expensive, unsustainable and skewed.

"We are particularly concerned that the Commission is considering an overhaul of existing policy on renewable energies, which could significantly undermine investor confidence in this young, thriving industry," said Frauke Thies, EU energy policy campaigner for Greenpeace on renewable energies. The Renewable Energy Roadmap proposes to set one overall target for renewable energy in the three sectors of electricity, transport and heating & cooling. "This represents a departure from the current sector-specific approach, which has been very successful," said Thies.

The package also attempts to throw a life-line to coal, the most polluting, least efficient source of energy, by lending strong support to unproven carbon capture and storage (CCS) technologies in electricity generation. CCS options would

take at least a decade to test and, even if they worked, another decade to deploy on a significant scale.

"The Commission is ignoring the financial costs of carbon capture and storage, its risk of failure, for example due to leakage, and that focusing on this technology diverts attention away from clean and dependable options like renewable

energy and efficiency," said Mark Johnston, EU energy policy campaigner for Greenpeace on coal, nuclear power and subsidies.

The package's paper on climate change stresses the need for developed countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2020. It is far from certain, however, that the Commission will advise this target for Europe's own emissions.For a decade now, the EU has defended the goal of limiting average temperature increase to below 2 degrees Celsius. This would require just such a 30% cut by 2020, a target which has already been suggested by certain member states (Germany, UK, France, Italy and Sweden).

"If the Commission recommends, as is rumoured, a meagre 20% greenhouse gas emissions target for Europe for 2020, it will stand accused of a scientific and political blunder. Such a target would indicate that the European Union should not take the steps needed to prevent the most devastating impacts of climate change," said Mahi Sideridou, Greenpeace EU climate and energy policy director. "The Commission would truly be guilty of fiddling while the planet burns."

On nuclear energy, the Commission proposes further talks about safety and security issues, reiterating its position that because nuclear decisions are controversial, they should be taken at member state level. Greenpeace maintains that nuclear energy is dirty, dangerous and expensive, and needs to be rapidly phased out.