'Burnt out' EU likely to curb climate goals

BBC ^ | 21 January 2014 | Matt McGrath

[csvset]

Binding national targets on renewable energy are expected to be dropped from new EU proposals due to be unveiled on Wednesday.

The UK has lobbied hard to have the mandatory 2030 target watered down, saying it would drive up energy bills.

The EU executive will also outline a goal on emissions cuts for 2030, set to be 35 or 40% below 1990 levels.

But green groups said the proposals lacked ambition and were the acts of a "burnt out" Commission.

Seven years ago, the EU set out a three-pronged energy and climate strategy for 2020.

Emissions of greenhouse gases were to be cut by 20%, energy efficiency was to be improved by a similar amount and one fifth of all energy had to come from renewable resources.

Artificial constraints

The binding renewables target has been embraced by countries like Germany where a decision to get out of nuclear in 2011 meant a focus on wind and solar.

With huge government subsidies, installations of renewables soared.

But other countries, including the UK and Poland, have argued strongly that the mandatory target approach was too restrictive, and was preventing them cutting emissions in the most financially efficient way.

Along with France and Spain, they have lobbied hard to have it removed from the new proposals for 2030.

"It makes no sense to impose artificial constraints on how individual countries meet emissions targets," said a spokesman for the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC).

"We are determined to keep people's energy bills as low as possible and that means having the flexibility to cut emissions in the most cost effective way".

[csvset]

The price of carbon has collapsed over the past year due to an excess of carbon permits.

LOL Suckers. Next up, investing in a Bitcoin mine.

[exDemMom]

As long as power plants aren’t belching pollutants into the air, dumping toxic wastes in nearby streams, or burying drums of noxious chemicals behind the plants, then what is there to do to clean them up? I think the work of making energy clean is largely done, and it has nothing to do with carbon dioxide. In fact, high carbon dioxide emissions means that the plant is burning fuel cleanly, since that is the product of complete combustion.

This whole fad of reducing “carbon emissions” is sheer lunacy.

[PreciousLiberty]

“The price of carbon has collapsed over the past year due to an excess of carbon permits.

LOL Suckers. Next up, investing in a Bitcoin mine.”

Heh, heh, heh. I’d like to see a lot of investment in new nuclear technology, but not for any CO2 related reason. Too bad Germany went the other way.

BTW, I think you’re wrong about Bitcoins...they may not be a good investment right now, but they’re around for the long haul as long as we don’t have a major reversion to a low-tech society.

[what's up]

All it ever was was an attempt to topple the oil industry. A way for the leftists to get their money not based on a superior product but through lies and political connections.