Leaders urge greater focus on energy efficiency
(20 Jun 08) Europe must speed up implementation of an EU energy efficiency action plan and consider its "possible revision", European leaders said on Friday. The action plan was issued in 2006 to help reduce the bloc's energy consumption by 20 per cent in 2020.
The call was made in a resolution adopted following a meeting of heads of state and government in Brussels. A European commission report published earlier this year shows that most EU member states are not taking sufficient action to improve energy efficiency.
European leaders gave no clue as to their preferred objectives for revising the action plan. Germany and France recently called on the EU to adopt more concrete measures on energy efficiency, with the latter calling for a binding target for 2020.
Discussions at the two-day European council meeting were dominated by the fall-out from Ireland's rejection of the EU Lisbon treaty. The leaders also discussed climate change issues.
The resolution calls on the commission to propose an EU strategy for "scaling up finance and investment flows" for mitigating and adapting to climate change in response to the Bali Action Plan.
Heads of state also asked the commission to propose a "mechanism to incentivise member state and private sector investment" in 12 proposed carbon capture and storage demonstration projects.
During the meeting commission president José Manuel Barroso presented proposals to deal with rising prices outlined last week. The EU executive says it will propose this autumn tax incentives to encourage energy savings, including reduced VAT rates for greener products.
Follow-up: EU summit website and council resolution. See also European commission press release and memo on high oil prices.
Published with permission of ENDS Europe Daily
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