EU Leaders Said to Delay Decision on 2030 Targets for Emissions

BRUSSELS -- European Union leaders intend next month to agree on a timeline for developing energy and climate targets for 2030, delaying a final decision on the polices, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

Most governments in the 28-nation bloc need more time to reconcile differences over a proposal by the EU’s regulatory arm calling for tighter emissions restrictions and an overhaul of renewable energypolicies by 2030, said the people, who asked not to be identified because of policies against speaking publicly. EU presidents and prime ministers will debate the issue in Brussels for the first time on March 20 and may back setting a deadline for a decision later this year, they said.

The delay may be a setback for the global effort to fight climate change and for United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki- Moon, who is convening world leaders on Sept. 23 to set out ways to curb fossil fuel emissions. The EU has for decades been at the forefront of that process, and hesitation on its part may remove a spur for the U.S. and China to act.

“It’s very important that EU leaders set a time horizon in March for endorsement of the commission’s proposal -- that’s a signal that Europe must send globally,” said Tomas Wyns, a researcher at the Institute of European Studies at the Brussels Free University. “Hopefully that will be June. Otherwise it may only be October or at the end of the year.”

Summit Schedule

Before the EU summit in March, governments are scheduled to discuss the commission’s proposal at a gathering of competition ministers on Feb. 20, with environment ministers on March 3, and energy ministers the next day, according to Greece, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.

Heads of state will probably give political guidance on the matter through the European Council, said a presidency official, who asked not to be identified because of communication policy rules. The official declined to comment on the possible outcome of the March meeting.

EU carbon prices rose as much as 3 percent to a 13-month high of 6.88 euros on the ICE Futures Europe exchange in London today, buoyed by the commission’s plan to start temporary curbs on supply as soon as next month. The 2030 package will be the next focal point for investors, since stricter climate targets would mean the supply of allowances will have to be cut more aggressively after 2020.

Debate about the timing of adopting the target highlights the divide between countries in western Europe such as Britain and France, which want a quick decision, and those in the east led by Poland, which are concerned that the new targets will boost energy prices.

Commission Proposal

The European Commission’s proposal calls for carbon dioxide emissions to be cut by 40 percent by 2030, double the goal for 2020. It would require an average annual investment of 38 billion euros ($52 billion), according to an EU policy paper on Jan. 22. The current pace of reductions would lead the EU to a 32 percent cut by 2030.

The commission’s ambition is to have a political decision on the direction of future policy in time for the Sept. 23 summit, where the UN is seeking pledges that can underpin a global treaty limiting emissions to be approved in 2015 in Paris.

The strategy recommended by the commission also includes an EU-wide target to boost the share of renewables in energy consumption to 27 percent by 2030. The decision to focus on a single greenhouse-gas reduction target binding on member states and discontinue renewables goals for individual nations has been supported by the U.K. and criticized by companies including Vestas Wind Systems A/S and Alstom SA, which make wind turbines and nuclear reactors.

EU Leadership

EU nations have established the world’s largest carbon market and extended restrictions on emissions under the Kyoto Protocol until 2020 as Russia, Japan and Canada rejected further limits. The U.S. never endorsed the Kyoto treaty, which was negotiated in the Japanese city by that name in 1997.

It is “imperative” that EU leaders turn the commission’s proposal into a decision in March, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said on Feb. 6, according to Agence France Presse. Without a political declaration next month, Europe may have nothing to offer at the UN climate summit in September, because elections to the European Parliament in May and the end of the current commission’s term in October will complicate the decision-making process, he said.

Polish Opposition

Poland, which relies on coal for more than 90 percent of its electricity production, said no decision on new energy and climate targets should be made before the commission’s term expires. Future policies in Europe must take into account the region’s competitiveness and the costs of energy, which in some parts of the region are double U.S. levels, according to the Polish government.

“We want a broad discussion in March, not a decision,” Economy Minister Janusz Piechocinski told reporters on Feb. 12 in Warsaw. “Our logic is the following: If Poland is forced, it will veto those European solutions. We are calling for a more ambitious goal: a global agreement.”

Environment ministers will not aim to adopt a unanimous political statement on the 2030 package at their gathering, leaving the matter to the EU leaders, according to the two people with knowledge of the matter.

Only after EU leaders back the strategy for the next decade will the commission be able to start drafting legislation on how to achieve the targets. The law proposed by the commission will then need to be adopted by member states and the European Parliament. That process typically takes a year or two.

Copyright 2014 Bloomberg

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IEA bids to keep alive, without the economic growth to damage climate targets

The International Energy Agency has today urged Governments to place four energy policy set to, which it claims "climate goals alive are without economic growth to damage".

To speak in London, IEA Executive Director Maria van der Hoeven said: "climate change has slipped frankly on the backburner of pushed political priorities. "But the problem is not way - on the contrary."

The IEA wants to watch, said a global temperature rise of no more than 2 ° C by 2020, but van der Hoeven, was the figure of 3.6 to 5.3 ° C.

Still, she stressed that "much more to be done, energy sector emissions without economic growth put at risk - a major concern for many Governments to combat".
Last year in the United States, a transition from coal to gas power generation helped retrieve emissions by 200 million tons (Mt) emissions to levels of mid-1990s. Meanwhile, China experienced the largest increase in CO2 emissions (300 mt), "but the rise was one of the lowest in a decade it has powered through the use of renewable energy and improvements in energy intensity", the IEA says.

The IEA wants Governments around the world four measures in policy:
Targeted measures for energy efficiency in buildings, industry and transport;Limitation of the construction and the use of the least efficient coal plants.Actions to halve releases into the atmosphere from the upstream oil and gas industry expected methane (a powerful greenhouse gas); Implementing a partial phase-out of fossil fuel consumption subsidies.

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China Boosts energy, emissions targets after record pollution

The Government reduced the country's CO2 emissions and energy consumption China's top economic planner, said attempts, the national development and Reform Commission per unit of gross domestic product by at least 3.7 per cent in the year 2013 and emissions trading to wear today in a report. Carbon intensity fell 5.02 percent and energy consumption per unit of GDP slid by 3.6 percent last year against targets by 3.5 percent, said the NDRC in Beijing.
China's Cabinet, the State Council, estimated in August energy saving and emission reduction in the five years up to 2015 and the country's largest 2.37 trillion yuan ($380 billion) to spend, that oil companies produce for billion yuan in refinery of upgrades on clean fuel have announced. Official measurements of particulate matter in the air measuring less than 2.5 micrometres, that 993 micrograms per cubic meter in Beijing represent the greatest danger for the health rose to a record on 12 Jan. compared to guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) of no more than 25.

"The energy intensity and carbon intensity targets for this year will be met probably Charlie Cao, analyst at Bloomberg of new energy finance in Beijing," said today by phone. "The five-year targets are more difficult to achieve by 2015, especially if economic growth makes it easier in the following years."
The nation wants to reduce energy consumption CO2 intensity per unit of GDP by 16 per cent over the five years by 17 per cent by 2015.

Clean energy
China will expand also the electricity produced from renewable energy sources. Hydropower capacity will climb wind of 18 million and solar energy of 10 million, according to the report by 21 million kilowatts this year. Nuclear power rising 3.24 million kilowatts.

"We are increasingly to save energy and resources and to protect the environment," the NDRC said. "We will continue to reduce the discharge of major pollutants."
The Government will present the pricing mechanisms for oil and gas, reforms the report showed. The NDRC test gas-price programs in the provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi in South China started in December 2011 and said that it would be expanded nationwide after a review.

Rates, growth
Oil product pricing reform can be announced after the national people's Congress, Neil Beveridge, a senior research analyst with Bernstein in Hong Kong, Feb 25 said. China might be oil company fuel prices according to guideline rates posted by the Government, the official Xinhua News Agency reported March 28, citing Peng Sen, a former Vice President of the NDRC.

Current environmental concerns, a "tight" gas market with strong demand growth and the country always dependent of pipeline and liquefied natural gas imports point to an acceleration which can increase reforms this year and prices, said Scott Darling, analyst with Barclays PLC in Hong Kong, in a report 24 Jan.
China's goal of economic growth at 7.5 percent this year, according to Prime Minister Wen Jiabao's work report in Beijing today before his final inaugural speech to nearly 3,000 lawmakers at the annual meeting of the NPC be maintained. GDP expanded 7.9 percent in the fourth quarter compared with 7.4 per cent in the previous period, snapped a seven quarter slowdown, government figures showed Jan. 18.

Copyright 2013 Bloomberg
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