Ministers to reject binding renewable goals

Date: 30/11/00

By Renée Cordes

EU GOVERNMENTS will next week shoot down attempts to introduce mandatory national targets for the development of 'renewable' energy sources, amid widespread concern that they would be impossible to achieve.

Industry and energy ministers will insist that the non-binding targets called for by the European Commission are sufficient to increase the use of solar and wind-generated electricity and other renewable energy sources when they meet next Tuesday (5 December). But the European Parliament and green groups argue that without mandatory targets, the renewables sector will never get the support it needs to increase its share of the energy market.

The Commission is urging member states to establish individual targets for future consumption of electricity from renewable sources, based on countries' own estimates of increases in capacity. Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio had originally intended to propose binding national targets, but was forced to back down because of strong resistance from member states, which feared such goals would be unrealistic.

Her proposal also leaves open the possibility for the Commission to come back in five years with a new plan for Union-wide rules on state aid for renewable energy producers, taking into account experiences reported in different member states.

The eventual goal is to double the renewables sector's share of total energy consumption to 12% by 2010. De Palacio says her approach would allow the EU to diversify its power supplies and meet international climate-change commitments.

Commission officials have warned that if drastic measures are not taken soon to boost energy efficiency, the Union risks falling short of its pledge to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions to below 1990 levels by 2012, as agreed at the Kyoto climate-change conference three years ago.

In its first reading on the Commission's proposal, the Parliament called for binding national targets with the burden to be shared among member states.

MEPs said these targets should be agreed soon after adoption of the directive and gave the Commission until the end of 2004 to come up with loose targets for 2020. But EU member states and the Commission plan to stick to their insistence on non-binding 'indicative'targets, delaying the chances of a possible accord until well into next year.

"This is very worrying," said Giulio Volpi of the World Wide Fund for Nature. "If we cannot get agreement soon on this directive, that would be considered a step back."

But he added that he was encouraged by the fact that EU governments are seeking to extend existing state aid for the renewables sector for another ten years, rather than the five years suggested by the Commission. "That means that governments have understood that renewables need to be supported before they develop a critical mass," he said.

EU governments are set to shoot down attempts to introduce mandatory national targets for the development of 'renewable' energy sources, amid widespread concern that they would be impossible to achieve.