The Danish government has boosted attempts of a group of member states to toughen emissions cuts
The Danish government has stepped into the fray over Europe's climate change targets, boosting the attempts of a group of member states to opt for more ambitious emissions cuts.
Denmark on Thursday set out its own vision for energy supplies in 2050, showing how the country could meet its aim of becoming independent of coal, oil and natural gas by the middle of the century. The country is already a leader in wind energy generation, and benefits from a well-developed electricity grid allowing it to share green power with some of its Nordic neighbours.
The Danes also issued a joint statement with Chris Huhne, the UK's secretary of state for energy and climate change, who has spearheaded the push by several member states to toughen the EU's current greenhouse gas emissions targets.
At present, the EU is committed to cutting emissions by 20% by 2020, compared with 1990 levels. But critics argue this target is already close to being met, and no longer represents a stimulus to green investment. They want the EU to move to a target of 30% emissions cuts by 2020, which they say will boost the chances of dominating the rapidly growing global market in clean technology.
Lykke Friis, Danish minister for climate and energy, and Huhne said: "Decarbonising further, faster can keep Europe ahead in the global low-carbon race, but the UK and Denmark can't do that alone. That's why the EU commission's forthcoming 2050 roadmap must kickstart the debate in Europe by offering a cost-effective, credible and ambitious pathway that enables member states to take the decisions that will stimulate low-carbon investment and take Europe beyond the cul-de-sac that is the current 20% cut target."
The push for tougher targets is opposed by several large industrial lobbying groups, and by the EU energy commissioner G�enther Oettinger, who said it would lead to "faster de-industrialisation" in Europe.
Huhne has previously told the Guardian: "The short-termist view of sticking to 20% doesn't cut the mustard. Moving to 30% would give our businesses a head start in new green industries and get us off the oil hook quicker, insulating us from oil price spikes."
A report for the German federal government, published on Monday, found that raising the level of ambition in the EU's climate targets would increase European GDP by up to $842bn (�520bn), a 6% rise, and create up to 6m additional jobs across member states. It concluded that the current 20% target "has become too weak to mobilise innovations". Sticking with it, the authors said, would be "the equivalent of digging deeper while still being stuck in a hole", while the 30% target would be not only achievable but "economically beneficial".
In its own analysis of the 20% and 30% targets, a leaked copy of which was seen by the Guardian, the European commission found that moving to the higher target would be "cost-effective", because it would stimulate industry and encourage energy efficiency, and would make it easier and cheaper to achieve the EU's 2050 target of cutting emissions by 80%. The draft briefing document shows that Europe is on track to comfortably exceed its existing climate change targets of cutting emissions by 20% by 2020, and on current policies will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by that date.
Green campaigners said the analysis, which joins a growing body of evidence demonstrating that the targets are feasible, showed the case for moving to the tougher target was now "unanswerable".
That confidential 2050 roadmap is now under discussion in the various departments of the commission, and by member states. Ministers lobbying for the tougher target are fighting to ensure that the roadmap is not undermined by opponents in industry, or watered down.
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/feb/24/denmark-europe-climate-change
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