"Binding targets for the expansion of renewable energies are an historic turning point in the EU’s energy and climate policy"
Federal Environment Minister Gabriel has made the following statement on the results of the European Council meeting:
"Today the European Council, chaired by Federal Chancellor Merkel, reached a truly historic decision and agreed on a new direction in EU energy and climate policy. For the first time, climate protection and energy policy are being merged into an integrated policy.
We are facing the challenge of having to halve global CO2 emissions by 2050 to ensure that we will still be able to cope with the dangers of climate change. The EU has responded accordingly and has set itself ambitious reduction targets that are supported by a climate-oriented EU-internal energy policy. I congratulate Chancellor Merkel on these hugely successful negotiations.
Under today’s decision by the European heads of state and government, by 2020 the European Union will reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent compared with 1990 levels. It will undertake this commitment provided that other developed countries commit themselves to comparable emission reductions and newly industrialising countries also contribute adequately according to their respective capabilities. The EU will take this reduction target to the international negotiations on a post-2012 climate protection agreement. In order to emphasise the credibility of its engagement, the European Council also agreed on a unilateral EU commitment, irrespective of the course of international negotiations and the commitments of other countries, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%.In order to implement these targets, the European Council has agreed on concrete measures:
Firstly, increasing energy efficiency by 20 percent by 2020. This means nothing less than an efficiency revolution. In order to achieve this target, we in Germany, for example, must increase energy efficiency by 3 percent per year.
Secondly, the share of renewable energies in primary energy consumption in the EU must increase to 20 percent by 2020. It was possible to deny France`s request to create a link here to nuclear power.
Thirdly, the European Council has determined that a binding target of a 10 percent share in total petrol and diesel consumption by 2020 will also apply to biofuels. This will be achieved in a sustainable way with second-generation biofuels.
The decisions by the European Council are a move in the right direction both for climate protection and successful economic development. The key indicators for energy efficiency and the share of renewable energies will in future be trademarks of successful economies. Against this background, the European Council has asked the Commission to present proposals for achieving an integrated strategy for the promotion of eco-innovation early in 2008."