Paris - EU energy ministers are considering making energy
efficiency legally binding across the Union, French Environment
Minister Jean-Louis Borloo said Saturday in Paris.
'But this is very difficult to evaluate, and so we must work out
many details before it can be applied,' Borloo told Deutsche
Presse-Agentur dpa.
The proposal was made on the third, and last, day of an informal
meeting of EU environment and energy ministers in Paris devoted to
drafting a package of laws that would reduce greenhouse gas
emissions, increase the use of renewable energy sources and make
energy use more efficient across Europe.
France, which assumed the rotating EU presidency on July 1, and
Brussels want to have the package approved by the European Parliament
by the end of the French term, on December 31, or at the latest in
March 2009, just ahead of European Parliament elections.
Feran Tarradelles Espuny, the spokesman for European Energy
Commissioner Andris Pibalgs, said that ministers were considering
making energy efficiency goals as legally binding as budget deficit
ceilings are.
This could be a global directive constraining EU member states to
reduce energy consumption by 20 per cent by the year 2020 or measures
directed at specific energy-intensive sectors, he said.
German Junior Finance Minister Jochen Homann said Germany 'would
have no problem with (such a directive) on a European level.'
In addition, Tarradelles Espuny said, measures were being
considered to set minimum efficiency standards for a wide range of
equipment, such as light bulbs, electronic standby devices and street
and office lighting equipment.
In one year, standby devices across Europe consume as much energy
as does the country of Hungary, he said, and noted that a vote would
be taken Monday on the standby device proposal.
On Friday, Pibalgs said a reduction of 20 per cent in the EU's
energy consumption would represent annual savings of 100 billion
euros, at an oil price of 60 dollars per barrel. And it would reduce
carbon dioxide emissions by 780 million tons.
Energy efficiency 'is our best tool to mitigate the effect of
increasing oil prices on citizens' welfare, improve the EU's
competitiveness and achieve our goals for security of supply,'
Pibalgs said.
In addition, Borloo said EU members were strongly in favour of the
goal of having renewable energy sources represent 20 per cent of all
energy use by 2020, with a minimum of 10 per cent in transport,
whether it be biofuels or electric automobiles.
EU environment ministers were also looking to increase the share
of carbon dioxide savings in the production of some biofuels by 35
per cent in the near term, and by 50 per cent by the year 2015,
Borloo said.
Earlier Saturday, the former head of the International Energy
Agency (IEA), Claude Mandil, told participants at the meeting that
Europe was playing an ineffectual double game with Russia and must
cease if it wants to better diversify its energy sources.
'On the one hand we are horrified that there will be a shortage of
Russian gas and, on the other hand, we are verbally aggressive with
Russia,' Mandil said.
'Let's be flexible,' he went on. 'Let's stop provoking Russian
sovereignty in the belief that we can dictate Russian behaviour on
energy.'
Borloo closed the three-day meeting by saying it had been
'indispensable' and 'absolutely crucial.'
'Big objective difficulties remain to be overcome, but the desire
to succeed is also big,' he said.
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