23 November 2011 | Linton Nightingale
Energy, Legislation, Europe

 

Three of europe's top utility companies are demanding that the EU sets ambitious emission mitigating targets beyond 2020.

Three of Europe’s largest utility companies have urged the European Union to actively pursue the creation of a climate and energy package for 2030, featuring legally binding regulations and targets geared towards reducing emissions and promoting energy efficiency and renewable resources.

Danish firm Dong Energy, Britain’s SSE and Dutch energy company Eneco Holding released a joint statement yesterday stressing the need for “long-term predictability of the EU's commitment on the decarbonisation of the energy system, in order to make the necessary investments in technological innovations and the low-carbon energy supply chain to bring down the costs.”

“The European power sector should do its share by investing in a secure, affordable and carbon-neutral power supply in Europe by 2050. Current EU policies will not allow the EU to meet its objective of 80-95 percent emissions reduction by 2050,” continued the statement. “The coalition believes that this is largely due to the significant policy gap between 2020 and 2050.”

By 2020 the EU has targeted a 20 percent reduction in greenhouse emissions compared to levels seen in 1990. A further reduction of 95 percent has been set for 2050. To achieve this the European Commission noted in the EU low-carbon roadmap, published in March this year, that carbon emissions must be reduced by 40 percent and then 60 percent by 2030 and 2040 respectively. The roadmap also claimed that if the EU worked hard to lower emissions over the next few years then emissions could be reduced by as much as 25 percent, compared to 1990 levels, by 2020.

Dong Energy, Eneco and SSE have also urged the European Commission to provide an ambitious Energy Roadmap 2050, “which addresses the current discrepancy between long-term energy and climate objectives, mid-term milestones and current short-term policies.” The European Commission is scheduled to publish its proposals for the EU on how to mitigate carbon emissions beyond 2020 next month.

 

Images: Climate Action Stock Photos
 

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