Later today the European Union will make one of its major announcements, the target for its carbon emissions reductions through to 2030 and reports suggest the negotiations are still going on.
A draft report also suggests officials could avoid a decision on binding emissions targets for 2030.
Various media reports from Europe suggest the key target underpinning the EU’s proposed climate and energy strategy is still yet to be finalised, hours before the long-awaited white paper setting out a series of new environmental and energy policies is due to be published.
According to reports from the RTCC website, the latest draft of the new White Paper proposes two alternative emissions targets for 2030, one requiring a reduction in emissions of 35 per cent against 1990 levels and the other aiming for a 40 per cent cut.
The proposals are likely to anger green businesses, NGOs, and several member states, including the United Kingdom, Germany and France, that have been calling for an emissions target of at least 40 per cent.
The UK has led calls for a 2030 target of 40 per cent, which could potentially be increased to 50 per cent if an ambitious international climate change treaty is agreed.
However, it has faced opposition from some eastern European states and carbon intensive industry groups who fear a more ambitious target would push up energy costs across the bloc.
British environmental news website BusinessGreen reports critics of the weaker 35 per cent target maintain the EU’s own analysis has shown that it marks only a marginal improvement on a business-as-usual scenario.
It would also mean the bloc was no longer on track to deliver its stated goal of cutting emissions 80 per cent by 2050.
They also point to EU modelling that has shown that a 40 per cent, or even 50 per cent target, would have a negligible impact on EU GDP and would driv
e massive investment in clean technologies.
“An independent analysis shows that more ambitious decarbonisation scenarios deliver greater benefits, though the EC’s draft impact assessment is limited to 45 per cent emissions cuts, and the political discussion is focused on even lower figures,” said Jason Anderson, head of EU climate and energy policy at WWF’s European Policy Office.
“It also reveals that despite the need to ensure long term decarbonisation, European Commission proposals for 2030 appear to reduce ambition for 2050 compared to previous publications.
“The European Commission’s work should be based on expert analysis and resist Europe’s least ambitious voices, or the EU will face 10 years of climate inaction, energy sector stagnation, and lost environmental and economic opportunities,” Mr Anderson told BusinessGreen.
According to RTCC, the draft text also suggested the EC is preparing to fudge its decision on whether to impose a new set of binding renewable energy targets on member states.
Instead the document called only for a “coherent headline target” for renewable energy of between 25 per cent and 27 per cent that would then allow member states to set their own targets.
However, negotiations on the final version of the White Paper were still continuing and hope remained that the option of a 35 per cent emission target could be dropped.
One EU source told RTCC that President Barroso could yet push through a more ambitious target, despite opposition from a handful of his commissioners.
Regardless of the final decision, the White Paper represents the start of a new round of negotiations, meaning that the proposed package could be strengthened or weakened in the coming months following interventions from the European Council or Parliament.
