Europe
EU climate and energy package
Burning fossil fuels to generate electricity and heat, and to fuel our transport system, accounts for approximately 80% of European carbon dioxide emissions. A sustainable EU energy policy is therefore key to reducing these emissions and combating climate change.
Indeed, without a robust energy policy which drives emissions reductions the EU will not meet a 20% unilateral cut in emissions by 2020 – rising to 30% once we have a global climate deal. These are targets that European Heads of State and Government (this time 27 nations) agreed in 2007.
The four pillars of the climate and energy package are:
- a Renewable Energy Directive which obliges the EU to meet 20% of its energy requirements from renewable forms of energy by 2020;
- regulations on carbon capture and storage; and
- a new proposal on how the 2020 emission reduction target should be split up between EU countries; and
- proposals to revise the EU’s Emissions Trading Scheme.