Europe intensifies to Avert Climate Disaster

Europe intensifies to Avert Climate Disaster





    
 
 January 2007  - The European 
Commission today intensified its campaign to limit global 
warming with a new Energy Policy for Europe to fight climate 
change and boost the energy security and competitiveness of 
the EU's 27 member countries. 
The Commission, Europe's executive branch of government, 
warned that if left unchecked, global warming is likely to 
trigger regional conflicts, poverty, famine, disease, and 
migration. 
The Commission said to avert these disasters global warming 
must be held to no more than 2°C above the temperature in 
pre-industrial times. 
If temperatures rise by 2.2°C, an additional 11,000 people in 
Europe will die prematurely within 10 years and after 2071 
there would be 29,000 extra deaths a year in southern Europe 
and 27,000 people would die prematurely in northern Europe. 
Yet, the Commission said there is a 50 percent chance that 
global temperatures will rise by more than 5°C during this 
century. 
England's giant Drax coal-fired power station (Photo courtesy 
FreeFoto) 
To combat the dire threat of global warming, the Commission's 
central proposal is that, under a future global agreement, the 
group of developed countries should cut their emissions of 
carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases responsible for 
warming the planet to an average of 30 percent below 1990 
levels by 2020. 
This target satisfies the European Environmental Bureau, EEB, 
an umbrella organization with 143 member environmental 
organizations in 31 countries. 
In December, EEB called for the European Union to adopt "an 
unconditional EU greenhouse gas reduction target for 2020 of 
at least 30 percent." 
The Commission said today, "Urgent action is needed to limit 
climate change to a manageable level and prevent serious 
physical and economic damage." 
The EU should take the lead by committing to reduce its own 
emissions by at least 20 percent by 2020 – a cut that should 
be increased to 30 percent as part of a satisfactory global 
agreement, the Commission said. 
In the longer term, greater emission reductions will be 
necessary and developing countries will also have to be part 
of the global effort, the Commission said. Worldwide emissions 
will need to be cut by up to half of their 1990 levels by 
2050. 
Commission President José Manuel Barroso said, "The challenges 
of climate change, increasing import dependence and higher 
energy prices are faced by all EU members. A common European 
response is necessary to deliver sustainable, secure and 
competitive energy." 
José Manuel Barroso of Portugal is President of the European 
Commission. (Photo courtesy Office of the President) 
The package proposed by the Commission today seeks to provide 
solutions based on three central pillars - a true internal 
energy market, accelerating the shift to low carbon energy, 
and energy efficiency. 
"The proposals put forward by the Commission today demonstrate 
our commitment to leadership and a long-term vision for a new 
Energy Policy for Europe that responds to climate change," 
Barroso said. "We must act now, to shape tomorrow's world." 
Achievement of these targets will require a massive growth in 
all three renewable energy sectors - electricity, biofuels, 
and heating and cooling, the Commission said. 
This renewables target will be supplemented by a minimum 
target for biofuels of 10 percent. In addition, a 2007 
renewables legislative package will include measures to 
facilitate the market penetration of both biofuels, and 
heating and cooling. 
Stavros Dimas, Commissioner for the Environment said, "Climate 
change is one of the gravest threats to our planet. Acting 
against climate change is imperative." 
Stavros Dimas of Greece is European Commissioner for the 
Environment. (Photo courtesy Office of the Commissioner) 
"Today, we have agreed on a set of ambitious, but realistic 
targets which will support our global efforts to contain 
climate change and its most dire consequences," said Dimas. "I 
urge the rest of the developed world to follow our lead, match 
our reductions and accelerate progress towards an 
international agreement on the global emission reductions." 
The European Union and most individual EU member states are 
legally bound by the Kyoto Protocol to reduce their greenhouse 
gas emissions eight percent below 1990 levels by the end of 
2012. 
But the Commission said today that on current energy and 
transport policies, rather than falling, EU emissions would 
increase by around five percent by 2030. 
The EU's dependence on energy imports will jump from 50 
percent of total EU energy consumption today to 65 percent in 
2030 under current trends and policies, the Commission said. 
The Kyoto Protocol is an important first step towards cutting 
emissions of greenhouse gases, but its targets expire in 2012 
so further international action needs to be agreed for the 
period after that, the Commission said. 
In the Commission's view the EU must adopt domestic measures 
to reduce its emissions further and take the lead 
internationally to ensure that the 2°C global warming limit is 
respected. 
But there is a greater than a 50 percent chance that global 
temperatures will rise during this century by more than 5°C, 
the Commission said today, basing its predictions upon 
scientific reports, including the Stern Review. 
Sir Nicholas Stern was the chief economist and senior vice 
president of the World Bank from 2000 to 2003, and is now a 
civil servant and government economic advisor in the United 
Kingdom. (Photo credit unknown) 
Published by British economist Sir Nicholas Stern last October 
at the request of the Blair Government, the Stern Review says 
that, "On current trends, average global temperatures will 
rise by 2 - 3°C within the next 50 years or so. The Earth will 
be committed to several degrees more warming if emissions 
continue to grow." 
This warming will have many severe impacts, Stern warned. 
Melting glaciers will initially increase flood risk and then 
strongly reduce water supplies, eventually threatening 
one-sixth of the world’s population. 
Declining crop yields, especially in Africa, could leave 
hundreds of millions without the ability to produce or 
purchase sufficient food. At 4°C and above, global food 
production is likely to be seriously affected. 
Rising sea levels will result in tens to hundreds of millions 
more people flooded each year with warming of 3 or 4°C, 
affecting Southeast Asia, small island states, and large 
coastal cities, such as Tokyo, New York, Cairo and London. 
Sea levels rising due to global warming threaten low-lying 
European countries such as The Netherlands and Denmark. (Photo 
courtesy NOAA) 
According to one estimate, by the middle of the century, 200 
million people may become permanently displaced due to rising 
sea levels, heavier floods, and more intense droughts. 
Ecosystems will be particularly vulnerable to climate change, 
with around 15 to 40 percent of species potentially facing 
extinction after only 2°C of warming. And ocean acidification, 
a direct result of rising carbon dioxide levels, will have 
major effects on marine ecosystems, with possible adverse 
consequences on fish stocks, Stern wrote. 
The damages from climate change will accelerate as the world 
gets warmer, the Stern Review states, with abrupt and 
large-scale changes in regional weather patterns such as the 
monsoon rains in South Asia or the El Niño phenomenon - 
changes that would have severe consequences for water 
availability and flooding in tropical regions and threaten the 
livelihoods of millions of people. 
A number of studies suggest that the Amazon rainforest could 
be vulnerable to climate change. One model finds that the 
Amazon rainforest could be significantly, and possibly 
irrevocably, damaged by a warming of 2 - 3°C. 
The melting or collapse of ice sheets would eventually 
threaten land which today is home to one in every 20 people. 
Commissioner for Energy Policy, Andris Piebalgs said, "If we 
take the right decisions now, Europe can lead the world to a 
new industrial revolution - the development of a low carbon 
economy." 
European Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs of Latvia (Photo 
courtesy Office of the Commissioner) 
"Our ambition to create a working internal market, to promote 
a clean and efficient energy mix and to make the right choices 
in research and development will determine whether we lead 
this new scenario or we follow others," Piebalgs said. 
Research is also crucial to lower the cost of clean energy and 
to put EU industry at the forefront of the rapidly growing low 
carbon technology sector. To meet these objectives, the 
Commission will propose a strategic European Energy Technology 
Plan. 
The EU will also increase by at least 50 percent its annual 
spending on energy research for the next seven years. 
Energy efficiency is the third pillar of its strategy, and the 
Commission emphasized its goal of saving 20 percent of total 
primary energy consumption by 2020. 
If successful, this would mean that by 2020 the EU would use 
about 13 percent less energy than today, saving 100 billion 
euro and around 780 metric tons of the greenhouse gas carbon 
dioxide each year. 
The Commission proposes that the use of fuel efficient 
vehicles for transport be accelerated. There must be tougher 
standards and better labeling on appliances; improved energy 
performance of the EU's existing buildings and improved 
efficiency of heat and electricity generation, transmission 
and distribution. 
British Nuclear Fuels' Magnox nuclear power plant at 
Chapelcross (Photo courtesy FreeFoto) 
At present, nuclear power makes up 14 percent of EU energy 
consumption and 30 percent of EU electricity. While greenhouse 
gases are not emitted by the operation of nuclear power 
plants, the production of enriched uranium does generate 
emissions of carbon dioxide, and the problems of radioactive 
releases and waste disposal have yet to be solved. 
The Commission proposals underline that it is for each member 
state to decide whether or not to rely on nuclear energy. 
The Commission recommends that where the level of nuclear 
energy in the EU is reduced, as it will be in Germany which is 
phasing out its nuclear power plants, it must be offset by the 
introduction of other low carbon energy sources. Otherwise, 
the Commission said, the objective of cutting greenhouse gas 
emissions will become even more challenging. 
As part of its climate proposals, the Commission would 
establish an environmentally safe strategy to promote the 
industrial use of carbon capture and storage technology. 
It would strengthen and expand the EU emissions trading scheme 
and eventually link it with other regional emissions trading 
markets. 
The Commission intends to limit emissions from transport 
through action focusing on cars, civil aviation and transport 
fuels. 
Reducing CO2 emissions from residential and commercial 
buildings, and cutting emissions of the five greenhouse gases 
other than carbon dioxide are also important, the Commission 
said. 
The Commission will seek endorsement of these energy and 
climate change proposals during the Spring European Council 
March 8-9 in Brussels and will propose legislation in light of 
these discussions.