Archived press release

EU must strengthen climate action plan

22 January 2008

UK must give more support to renewable energy

• EU climate targets weaker than UN climate agreement in Bali
• Biofuel plans are social and environmental threat
• UK Energy Bill too weak to exploit huge renewable potentials

The EU must strengthen its proposals for cutting European carbon dioxide emissions, and abandon plans for a massive expansion in biofuels, if its ambitions to lead globally on climate change are credible, warns Friends of the Earth. The EU Energy Directive, which is due to be published on Wednesday (23 January), will allocate targets to each member state for cutting emissions and generating energy from renewable.

The day before (Tuesday 22 January) the UK Government's Energy Bill receives its Second Reading. The Bill outlines plans for a threefold increase in UK renewable electricity - but this is expected to be less than half the amount needed to meet the target that the EU is set to allocate to Britain on Wednesday. Friends of the Earth is calling for strong measures to be added to the Bill to boost renewable energy generation.

Friends of the Earth director, Tony Juniper, said:

"The EU climate plan is a disgrace. Europe wants to be a world leader in tackling global warming, but its carbon-reduction target is far weaker than the one agreed at last month's UN climate summit in Bali. Scientists warn that a cut of at least 30 per cent is required to prevent a climatic catastrophe. The EU must take urgent action. The solutions already exist, what we lack is political ambition and courage.

"Although the UK has one of the biggest renewable energy potentials in the EU, we lag behind most of our European neighbours in developing green power. The Government must revolutionise its support for renewables. We need policies that meet the scale of the challenge, including a far stronger target for large-scale renewables and generous payments to householders and businesses that supply excess electricity to the grid from solar panels and micro-wind turbines.

"European plans for a huge increase in biofuels must be shelved. Warnings about the negative social, environmental and climate impact that this technology could have are getting louder. And some biofuels cause more climate damage than the fuels they replace. We must not rush ahead with biofuels until we can be sure that they don't create more problems than they solve."

EU Renewables Directive

The EU has set a target of a 20 per cent cut in EU greenhouse gases (based on 1990 levels) by 2020, and says that a fifth of EU energy must be supplied by renewable sources by the same date, with 10 per cent of transport fuel coming from biofuels.

The announcement on Wednesday will set out EU proposals for the role that each country should play in meeting both the EU carbon dioxide reduction and renewable energy targets. It will also set out controversial plans to encourage a huge expansion in biofuels. The draft directive can be seen on Friends of the Earth Europe's web site [1].

The UK is expected to be allocated a renewable energy target of less than 20 per cent (probably around 15 per cent), despite having one of the biggest potentials for wind, wave and tidal energy in Europe [2].

The UK will also be obliged to ensure that 10 per cent of its transport fuel comes from biofuels and will not be allowed to implement stricter sustainability criteria than the weak ones developed by the EU.

The UK Government's Energy Bill:

The Government trumpeted a tripling of the amount of electricity produced from renewable sources in its Energy White Paper, but as electricity represents only a portion of total energy supply, this is less than half the amount that would be necessary to meet the UK's likely share of the renewable energy target as a whole. Energy includes electricity, transport fuels and heat).

Although the UK has the one of the biggest renewable potentials in Europe, only around 2% of UK energy (and under 5% of UK electricity) comes from renewable sources. If the UK is to ensure that 15 per cent of our energy comes from renewable sources, this will require around 30-40 per cent of our electricity to come from renewables. Reforms in the Energy Bill will only see the UK reach around half of this.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the EU to:

• Increase its targets for cutting greenhouse gas emissions. The EU target of a 20% carbon dioxide cut by 2020 is in violation of the UN Climate agreement signed in Bali [3] last month. This recognised that developed countries are required to reduce emissions by 25-40% by 2020 in order to avoid dangerous climate change.

• Abandon plans to allow companies from different countries to trade renewable energy certificates as a way of meeting targets. Member States should be obliged to develop a strong domestic renewable industry rather than buying their way out of their targets [4];

• Abandon damaging plans to encourage a huge expansion in biofuels as part of the EU drive for an increase in renewables [4]. There are increasing warnings about the social and environmental impacts of biofuels.

Friends of the Earth is calling on the UK Government to amend its Energy white Paper:

• Set a more ambitious target for developing renewable energy. The UK's target for increasing renewable falls a long way short of what the UK is expected to be asked to deliver as part of the EU renewable strategy.

• Give smaller scale renewable electricity producers (such as households, businesses and communities who invest in producing their own renewable electricity from say solar panels or wind turbines)

• A long-term guaranteed premium price for the electricity they generate. This is known as a `feed-in tariff', and operates successfully in many European countries, especially Germany [6].

• Reform the Government's gas and electricity regulator, Ofgem so that its primary purpose is carbon emissions reduction and protection of consumers

• Legislate to give renewable electricity generators priority access to feed their power into the National Grid.

• Consent for new coal and gas stations must only be given if they make use of waste heat and capture carbon dioxide emissions.

The Government should also strengthen the Climate Change Bill. The Bill, which Friends of the Earth has led the campaign for, should aim to cut UK emissions by 80 per cent by 2050, and include Britain's share of international shipping and aviation emissions.

Notes

www.foeeurope.org/agrofuels/documents/RE%20directive%20jan%202008.pdf (PDF† )

Renewable allocations will be based on a calculation based in part on GDP and current, or very recent, renewable output.

Conclusions adopted by the Ad Hoc Working Group on Further Commitments for Annex I Parties under the Kyoto Protocol (AWG) at its resumed fourth session held in Bali, 3-11 December 2007, states that: `achieving the lowest levels assessed by the IPCC to date and its corresponding potential damage limitation would require Annex I Parties as a group to reduce emissions in a range of 25-40 per cent below 1990 levels by 2020, through means that may be available to these Parties to reach their emission reduction targets.'

The UK has been a major proponent of a "flexibility mechanism" for the electricity sector under the Renewables Directive. This will allow companies to buy their way out of their obligations under the Directive by purchasing credits from other companies across the EU. This system is opposed by the renewable energy industry as it creates market uncertainty and undermines national support schemes for renewable power.

www.foe.co.uk/resource/media_briefing/eu_renewables_package.pdf (PDF† )

www.foe.co.uk/resource/briefing_notes/feedin_tariff.pdf (PDF† )

†To view PDF files you will need to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Visually impaired users can get extra help with these documents from access.adobe.com.

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust