The European Union’s original carbon targets are history. The new EU climate-change scheme was revealed today, power companies and other emitters will have to ratchet up their use of renewable energy.
Country by country these targets will be sorted into directives, industry will have to pay for the right to pollute. Carbon trading schemes (cap-and-trade) are in, greenhouse gasses are out.
The energy minister, Malcolm Wicks, said yesterday that Britain would be told to increase its energy from renewables by a factor of seven, meaning that up to 40 % of electricity generation in Britain should be from renewable sources by 2020. “We will meet our share of the European target, there’s no doubt about that,” he told the BBC.
These are pretty tough measures:
The commission confirmed the goal of cutting 20% from Europe’s carbon emissions by 2020 compared with 1990 levels, and generating one-fifth of the EU’s power from renewable sources by that time.
As its contribution, Britain must get 15% of its energy for heat, electricity and transport from renewables such as wind, wave, tidal, solar and biomass.
Only 2% of the UK’s energy is renewable – the lowest percentage of any major European country.
Better wind turbines, proper sustainable forestry and ag practices and more efficient PV — it’s coming.
