EU SUMMIT/The deal:Under a burden- sharing scheme each state will be allocated its own target, writes Jamie Smyth
EU leaders signed an ambitious agreement to combat climate change yesterday and called on the rest of the world to follow their lead and reduce CO2 emissions.
The deal will force the EU into a 20 per cent cut of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020, with the possibility of an extra 10 per cent reduction if non-EU states agree a global target. A host of other "binding" targets to boost the use of biofuels, increase energy efficiency and dramatically increase the use of renewable energy were also agreed.
Even the humble filament light bulb is likely to be phased out in 2009 and replaced by energy-efficient bulbs under the package.
German chancellor Dr Angela Merkel, who chaired the negotiations, said the ambitious deal would help avoid what "could well be a human calamity".
"It is important we can tell the G8 members that Europe has made a real commitment," said Dr Merkel, who will present the plan to world leaders in June in a bid to persuade the US, India and China to join a new post-Kyoto Protocol agreement.
The Kyoto agreement requires the EU to cut its CO2 emissions by 8 per cent between 1990 and 2012, while the new agreement forces a further 12 per cent reduction in just eight years. It will continue to use 1990 as the base year.
British prime minister Tony Blair acknowledged that the new targets were bold and ambitious and would require an immense amount of work.
Business lobby groups also warned that the package could lead to higher energy prices, but environmental groups heralded it as a historic breakthrough.
The most controversial part of the package relates to a legally binding target to make renewable energy account for 20 per cent of the overall EU energy mix by 2020. Initially 10 states had opposed a binding target, which could leave them open to litigation at the European Court of Justice if they missed it. But tough negotiations brought a compromise, which will give greater flexibility to states that have problems boosting the use of green energy.
A host of states use very little solar, wind or wave power. Ireland has only a 3 per cent share of renewables in its energy mix and states such as Luxembourg say their landlocked location makes boosting renewables a problem.
The European Commission has been told to devise a complicated burden-sharing scheme that will "take account of different national starting points, including the existing level of renewable energies and energy mix". Different targets will be allocated to each state, which will still allow the EU as a whole to generate 20 per cent of its overall energy mix from renewable energy by 2020. The scheme will also be used to apportion the percentage cut in CO2 required from each state by the target date.
Undoubtedly the biggest controversy was caused by the insistence of France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic that nuclear power be acknowledged as a "low carbon" technology. In the end the summit fudged the issue and merely acknowledged the contribution of nuclear energy to emissions reduction. However, diplomats said nuclear countries may escape with lower targets for renewables.
EU diplomats praised Dr Merkel's handling of the negotiations and signalled that Europe was taking the lead in the fight against climate change. Attention will now turn to the G8, where the spotlight will be turned on the big polluters, such as the US, Australia and China.