EU's response to climate change?

The way forward for the EU is an integrated energy and climate change policy, as the burning of fossil fuels is a major contributor to climate change. EU leaders endorsed such a policy in March 2007. This demonstrates Europe’s global leadership in tackling climate change while paving the way for the EU to increase its security of supply and strengthen its competitiveness. An integrated energy and climate change policy signals the launch of a new industrial revolution to transform the way we produce and use energy, and the types of energy we use. The goal is to move to a climate-friendly economy based on a combination of low-carbon technologies and energy sources. To limit global warming to 2 °C, global emissions of greenhouse gases will need to stop increasing within 10 to 15 years and then be cut to around half of 1990 levels by 2050. The EU is striving for a new global agreement to reach these goals. As a first step, it considers that industrialised countries should collectively cut their emissions of greenhouse gases to 30% below 1990 levels by 2020. Developing countries, such as China and India, will also need to start limiting the growth in their emissions. To underline its determination and set an example for its partners to follow, the EU has agreed to cut its own greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20% by 2020 regardless of what other countries do. The EU plans to achieve this reduction through actions foreseen in the new integrated energy and climate policy together with measures already in place.

The EU leaders have decided to:

• save 20% of energy consumption compared with projections for 2020 by improving energy efficiency;
• increase to 20% by 2020 the share of renewable energies in overall energy consumption, thus almost tripling the current level;
• increase tenfold — to at least 10% — the share of biofuels in overall petrol and diesel consumption by 2020, provided that sustainable, ‘second-generation’ biofuels from non-food crops become commercially available;
• develop and promote low- or even zero-emitting technologies, including carbon capture and storage — i.e. preventing CO2 entering the atmosphere by capturing it and storing it underground in depleted gas fields or old salt mines — so that these can make a major contribution to reducing emissions by 2020;
• better integrate EU energy markets, i.e. moving towards more competitive, Europe-wide electricity and gas markets;
• better integrate EU energy policy with other policies, not just with environment policy, but also with policies such as research, agriculture and trade;
• increase international cooperation: if the EU can take a common approach on energy, and articulate it with a common voice, it can lead global debate.

The starting point is a three-year energy action plan for Europe for the period 2007–09 designed to set the EU — and its citizens — on the right course to combine the fight against climate change with greater security of energy supply and continued economic growth. Source: The Way Forward: an integrated approach, Europe on the move, European commission, 2007