Assessing the EU 2030 Climate and Energy targets

On 22 January 2014, the European Commission put forward 2030 energy and clime targets of a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (compared to 1990) and a share of 27% renewables in final energy consumption. This Briefing Paper contains the most important conclusions of an assessment of these targets, as analysed by Ecofys and commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament.  

NEWSLETTER ISSUE 72 - FEBRUARY 2014

New EU Energy and climate package - the EU must take climate scientific warnings and climate impacts seriously!

On January 9th, the environment and industry committees agreed on the necessity of three specific targets for the 2030 climate and energy framework: one for reducing greenhouse gases, one for increasing the share of renewable energy sources and one for energy saving. However the Commission President and the Commissioners simply decided to ignore the call. For the Greens, the proposals that were presented by the Commission on 22 January are poor and extremely worrying...  

The EU must stop fuelling climate change and hunger

This lunctime the Parliament is to vote on the 'Indirect Land Use Change' (ILUC) report. Several years ago, agrofuels were presented as an adequate solution to limit the negative climate impacts of the transport sector. However, many scientific reports have shown that the climate impacts from ILUC can vary substantially between feedstocks and can negate all of the greenhouse gas savings of agrofuels relative to the fossil fuels they replace. The Greens warn about necessity to properly address the challenge...