MEPs Call for Strong EU Renewables Policy
The European Parliament's Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) Committee has given strong support to upcoming Commission proposals designed to increase the share of renewable energy in the EU's future energy mix.
MEPs in the ITRE committee voted in support of an own-initiative report presented by Danish Socialist MEP Britta Thomsen. While the report is non-binding and not connected with any existing legislative proposal, it provides an indication of how the Parliament may position itself with respect to the Commission's upcoming package of legislative proposals on renewables, expected in September 2007.
The report largely supports the Commission's approach of providing a legislative framework to facilitate a 20% share for renewable energies by 2020, whereby member states provide national action plans (NAPs) with specific sectoral targets depending on the particular conditions of their territory. In order to ensure member states fulfill their own sectoral targets, the report suggests that the NAPs be divided into stages, with close monitoring by the Commission so that further action can be taken if it becomes clear that the targets are not being met.
A binding 10% overall target for biofuels use in transport was endorsed by the Committee, as long as a sound equilibrium is maintained between food and fuel production. MEPs also called for the promotion of electric and hydrogen-powered vehicles. Fossil fuels were also mentioned in the report: MEPs support the idea of requiring a life cycle analysis and a "green certification" for fossil fuels, similar to certification requirements foreseen for biofuels.
Climate Change and Employment
Climate change represents a major challenge for employment policies both in terms of gains and losses, according to the study Climate Change and Employment conducted by the European Trade Union Confederation and the Social Development Agency for the European Commission. Even the most optimistic climate-change scenario will have a major impact on economic activities and employment, the report states.
Each economic sector will have to adapt to climate change, whether it benefits from the positive impact of policies aiming to achieve a low-CO2 economy - such as the renewable energy sector - or whether it directly suffers from climate change - as with the fisheries sector - the paper states. However, some regions and sectors will be particularly affected by climate change - those that depend on agriculture and fisheries, on one hand, and tourism on the other, are the most vulnerable.
The potential positive impact of climate change - such as cooler regions that would become more attractive to tourism or increase the availability of agricultural land at higher latitudes - comes at a price, which is often ignored or under-evaluated. The authors therefore recommend that policymakers anticipate the social and economic changes inherent to both climate change and policies reducing CO2 emissions.
Blackle Your Search to Save Energy
Blackle saves energy because the screen is predominantly black. This is based on the idea that a monitor requires more power to display a white or light screen than a black or dark screen.
In January 2007 a blog post proposed the theory that a black version of the Google search engine would save a fair bit of energy due to the popularity of the search engine. Since then there has been skepticism about the significance of the energy savings that can be achieved and the cost in terms of readability of black web pages.
Blackle believes that there is value in the concept because even if the energy savings are small, they all add up. Seeing Blackle every time we load our web browser can remind us that we need to keep taking small steps to save energy.
The European Happy Planet Index
Europe-wide research by the New Economics Foundation, using a new measure of carbon efficiency and real economic progress reveals that Europe is less efficient today than it was 40 years ago. The European Happy Planet Index reveals that the carbon efficiency with which 30 European nations produce lives of different relative length and life satisfaction for their citizens.
Europe as a whole has become less efficient in translating fossil fuel use into measurable human well-being. Scandinavian countries are the most efficient - achieving the highest levels of well-being in Europe at relatively low environmental cost. Nations that have most closely followed an Anglo-Saxon market model show up as the least efficient on the Index.
Apart from this, across Europe people report comparable levels of well-being regardless of their level of consumption.
France and UK Agree on Green Tax Policy
French President Nicolas Sarkozy and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown have announced that they will ask the British and French finance ministers to put a proposal to the European Commission on behalf of both countries to ask the Member States that all ecologically clean products should benefit from a reduced rate of VAT.
The products in question include cars with reduced CO2 emission, insulation materials, efficient light bulbs and energy-efficient appliances. The leaders are to propose a 5% EU-wide VAT rate for such products, a significant reduction from the UK's 17.5% and France's 19.6% VAT rates. The Commission is in favour of greater harmonisation of VAT rates - it recently published a consultation on the issue - and both the Commission's recent Green Paper on tax reform and it's Integrated Product Policy support the use of taxes as a tool for "greening" the EU economy.
The reduction and/or harmonisation of VAT rates across the EU requires the unanimous backing of all 27 EU member states, and the European Parliament has only a consultative role in taxation matters. The Commission acknowledges that the room for manoeuvre is narrow with respect to variable reduced VAT rates in the EU, as there is a risk for distortions in the internal market. There are also concerns that reduced rates for green products within the EU could distort trade with developing countries, particularly with respect to the import of biofuels.
The Commission is due to put forward proposals on unified VAT rates in early 2009.
Organic Farming Can Feed the World
Organic farming can yield up to three times as much food on individual farms in developing countries, as low-intensive methods on the same land - according to new findings which refute the long-standing claim that organic farming methods cannot produce enough food to feed the global population.
Researchers from the University of Michigan found that in Northern countries, yields were almost equal on organic and conventional farms. In Southern countries, food production could double or triple using organic methods.
In addition to equal or greater yields, the authors found that those yields could be accomplished using existing quantities of organic fertilizers, without putting more farmland into production. Yields in countries of the global South could increase dramatically by switching to organic farming.
Corporate interest in agriculture and the way agriculture research has been conducted in land grant institutions, with a lot of influence by the chemical companies and pesticide companies as well as fertilizer companies - all have been playing an important role in convincing the public that one needs to have these inputs to produce food.
The Rise and Fall of Globalized Industrial Agriculture
In spite of increased public and media attention to global warming, the industrial food system is rarely mentioned as a culprit, yet it is one of the major contributors of green house gases. The International Forum on Globalization (IFG) addresses this and other pressing issues in its report The Rise and Predictable Fall of Globalized Industrial Agriculture.
The report also demonstrates how international agriculture rules ensure the continued dominance of a highly destructive industrial food model. For example, despite spectacular growth in organic food consumption in the U.S. during the last two decades, only around 0.5 percent of U.S. cropland is certified organic. The chemical, industrial food paradigm is still firmly entrenched and expanding around the globe. This will remain so as long as current international rules are at play.
Highlights of the reports include:
- the link between globalized industrial agriculture and climate change;
- the link between NAFTA and problems related to migration;
- the dire future for organic farming if current WTO rules are maintained;
- how the U.S. Farm Bill mimics WTO policy.
The report includes many examples of successful regional food models, and recommends alternative agriculture and trade policies to those currently enforced by global and national institutions.
Lobbying the EU by Committee
Corporate Europe Observatory has published the briefing Lobbying the EU by Committee, which details the strategies of corporate influence in the Commission's expert groups, Council's working groups and Comitology committees.
Unknown to most citizens, a large part of European Union legislation is being drafted and fine-tuned by literally thousands of unknown and hardly accountable expert groups, advisory committees and working groups. Industry lobbyists, for whom Commission expert groups are a major focus, often succeed in getting a seat or a position of dominance within these opaque but powerful bodies.
For too long this large and critical part of the EU decision-making machine procedure has remained pretty much in the dark. Following intense pressure from the European Parliament, the European Commission may finally accede to demands for improved transparency over its expert groups.
Keeping the Lights On
Walt Patterson, Fellow at the Energy, Environment and Development Programme at Chatham House in London, starts from a simple premise in his new book Keeping the Lights On: that we are making a mess of energy, and this is endangering the planet. Using accessible, everyday language Patterson describes how we could do much better, outlining a different way to think about energy, what we want from it and how we get it.
Drawing on over 35 years of work from one of the leading voices in the field, this book explains how we could go about improving energy security and services while reducing costs and vulnerability, globally and rapidly. The book discusses the timely and heated debates surrounding energy and power, and emphasizes that electricity is about infrastructure; we have to stop treating it as a commodity. The result is a comprehensive introduction to the most important issues, providing the reader with innovative and expert ideas and solutions.
Profits in the Dutch Power Sector
A new report by SOMO, Powering Profits: Profits, Investments and Fuel Type Mixes in the Dutch Power Sector, addresses the Dutch power sector (i.e. generation and supply of electricity), identifying the major corporate players in the market, types of fuel used to generate electricity, the CO2 emissions and nuclear waste associated with these activities, the profits being made, and investments in both renewable and non-renewable generation capacity.
Analysis of the fuels used by the companies to generate electricity in the Netherlands reveals that fuels such as coal, natural gas, and nuclear dominate the fuel mix of most companies. The companies' fossil and nuclear-dominated fuel mixes lead to high levels of CO2 emissions and nuclear waste production. Five of the six companies examined in this study (Essent, Nuon, Electrabel, E.ON Energie and RWE Power) are planning to build large coal-fired power plants in the Netherlands. Although most of the plants will be able to co-fire biomass, they will be largely coal-based.
In this climate of largely unsustainable fuel mixes for electricity generation and supply, the power companies examined in this study are enjoying record profits. High profits are being translated into high dividends being paid to the companies’ shareholders. As owners of the three Dutch companies, Dutch public authorities have benefited significantly from the power companies’ activities, with some municipalities and provinces receiving over €100 million per year in dividends.
European Commission Discusses Biofuels
The European Commission brought together key actors in the biofuel sector this month to debate the benefits and challenges of bio-fuels production and use. Hosted by External Relations and European Neighbourhood Policy Commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the two-day conference included contributions from the Commission President, José Manuel Barroso, Brazil’s President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, and Portuguese Prime Minister, José Sócrates. European Commissioners responsible for energy, trade, development cooperation and the environment, along with Ministers from the EU and all over the world also participated, as did business representatives and academics and representatives of NGOs.
Debates addressed five key issues: policies to support biofuels; development of international trade in biofuels, environmental risks and benefits of production and use, biofuels and developing countries and research activities in biofuels.
The transport sector produces nearly a third of CO2 emissions in the EU and almost uniquely depends on oil, a largely imported fossil fuel, which is set to become more expensive as reserves become depleted. The new EU energy policy, as adopted in March 2007, proposes an immediate response to this situation by encouraging the production and use of biofuels, to replace petrol and diesel, through setting a 10% minimum target for biofuel market share by 2020.
The EU produced 3.9 million tonnes of biofuels in 2005, an increase of 60% compared to 2004. EU production of bioethanol (from cereals) accounts for 0.73 million tonnes of the total and biodiesel (from rapeseed) for 3.2 million tonnes. This represents 1% of EU petrol and diesel consumption. Globally, the production of bioethanol for fuel use was approximately 26.9 million tonnes in 2005, representing around 2% of petrol use worldwide. Brazil is the world’s leading producer of bioethanol, producing nearly 13 million tonnes in 2005, followed by the US which produced 11.8 million tonnes in the same year.
Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investments
According to a newly released UNEP report, global investment in sustainable energy is soaring alongside concern over climate change, high oil prices and growing government support. The report, Global Trends in Sustainable Energy Investments, 2007, states that sustainable energy investments grew 43 percent from the previous year in 2006 to reach 70.9 billion dollars, while another 30 billion entered the sector over the same period via mergers and acquisitions, leveraged buyouts and asset refinancing.
While renewable sources today produce about two percent of the world's energy, they now account for about 18 percent of world investment in power generation, with wind generation at the investment forefront. Solar and bio-fuel energy technologies grow even more quickly than wind, but from a smaller base.
The UNEP report stressed that the foremost source of growth for the sustainable energy sector had been the global introduction of legislation and support mechanisms by governments.
The Europa Diary
The Europa Diary is an education tool. It contains the basics of what the EU offers young citizens, covering a range of their specific concerns: e.g. travel, nutrition, drugs, shopping, money matters, environment, climate change, sustainable consumption, etc.
It is accompanied by a Teacher's guide. This guide contains background information on different consumer topics, exercises to test students’ understanding, questions for discussion and suggested research projects.
The Europa Diary and the Teacher's guide are available in all EU languages. They are distributed to schools for free, on a first come, first served basis. In 2007, more than 2 million copies of the Diary will be distributed to approximately 18 thousand schools in the EU-27. There is a Teacher's guide for every 25 Diaries.
Sustainability and Transparency in the Supply Chain
Transparency and sustainability are issues capturing the attention of many partners along the supply chain. On the supply-side, many small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) find that the inclusion in a global supply chain is a reason to begin to engage in sustainability. Whilst for multinational enterprises (MNE’s), being transparent about their supply chains helps demonstrate commitment to sustainable development and can secure stronger market leadership, especially from consumers for whom ethical sourcing is an important purchasing decision.
The briefing paper Sustainability and Transparency in the Supply Chain by the Global Reporting Initiative highlights the evolution of sustainability and transparency in the supply chain. Laying out the current state of play of sustainable supply chain management, the paper is a strong, concise foundation for understanding the emergence of supply chain transparency, and its likely future course.
The German EU Presidency: Good on Climate, Bad on Waste
According to the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), Germany’s EU Presidency (January – June 2006) will be remembered for its two European Council meetings, creating breakthroughs on Climate and Energy, and on the Treaty reform. It also worked hard on a number of specific environmental agenda items, and promoted a positive spirit for ecological industrial innovation. However, the concrete work on waste, on soil and agriculture, and its attitude in the CO2 and cars debate cannot be seen as positive.
When Germany took up the EU Presidency in January, EEB delivered its ‘Ten Green Tests’ to the Government in Berlin. EEB has now published its Assessment of the Environmental Results of the German Presidency of the EU. The assessment clearly scores positive on climate, even though a unilateral 20% greenhouse gas reduction target for the EU by 2020 can hardly be regarded as sufficient. This also counts for the 10% biofuels target.
The EEB has now launched its Ten Green Tests for Portugal’s Presidency of the EU (July – December 2007). “The Portuguese Presidency is prioritizing some important issues, such as biodiversity, water scarcity, and the marine environment. EEB supports these priorities, but we want to see tangible results which have an impact well beyond this six-month Presidency. Our Ten Green Tests reflect that”, says John Hontelez, EEB’s Secretary General.
EEB believes that EU Member States must agree to share the burden on general targets for greenhouse gas reduction and renewable energy promotion which they agreed at the March European Council. The breakthrough should come at the international level, with a firm agreement by parties to the UN Climate Convention to start negotiations on post-Kyoto targets. EEB is also keen to see progress on pending environmental legislation, such as Directives on air quality and soil protection, and pesticides legislation, on which some countries have expressed strong doubts about their willingness to proceed.
EEB also calls for a robust review of the EU’s Sustainable Development Strategy, which is on the December European Council’s agenda. This should result in major environmental fiscal reform, and a review of the objectives of the Lisbon Process.
