Wednesday 23 January 2008

WWF believes that the target could have been more ambitious and should have aimed at a 30% reduction, in line with what was decided at the European Council of March 2007 and with the EU's objective of keeping global average temperature from rising by more than 2ºC.

"As a global leader on climate change, the European Union should be planning for success, not failure, in the international negotiations to cut climate pollution," said Keith Allott, Head of Climate Change at WWF-UK.

"The European Commission presented a relatively weak proposal and not a single European country has supported more ambitious targets. The proposed 20% reduction by 2020 is a meagre effort - especially when set against a threat that might lead to Arctic melting and displacement of millions of people in developing countries."

The 20% target is not in line with the recent agreement at the UN conference in Bali - that developed countries should cut emissions by 25 to 40% by 2020.

Europe's emissions are already 10% below 1990 levels, mainly because of the economic restructuring in Eastern European countries in the 1990s.

WWF is calling for drastic improvements to the package of measures to be made by the European Parliament and Council.

Renewable energy hopes
However, on a positive note, WWF welcomes the target of achieving 20% of energy from renewable sources, including the target of gaining 10% of energy from biofuels in the transport sector. As a result of the effort sharing amongst the member states, today the UK has been given a new target from the EU demanding that by 2020 the UK must meet 15% of its primary energy demand with renewables.

Biofuels have the potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to benefit both the EU and developing countries, provided they are produced in a sustainable way with preference being given to those fuels that offer strong greenhouse gas benefits across their lifecycle.

"The EU target for renewables is an ambitious, but necessary and achievable, step towards a low-carbon, clean-energy economy," said Allott.

"The UK is fortunate in having access to fantastic renewable energy resources, but so far has been slower than many other member states in exploiting these resources, so we're now looking to the UK Government to really raise its game by making sure that we begin urgently to realise that potential," he concluded.