Eastern Europe struggling to meet EU climate targets

The EU has adopted an overall target of producing 20% of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, broken down into different targets for each country and taking as a basis their level in 2005.

 

Bulgaria's target is 16%, the Czech Republic and Hungary's is 13% and Slovakia's is 14%, while for Poland and Romania the targets are 15% and 24% respectively.

 

It was recently decided that the burden of cutting greenhouse gas emissions will be shared by means of a complicated mechanism, compensating Eastern European countries for their earlier efforts to cut down CO2 emissions (during the period following the collapse of their heavy industries after the fall of communism) with allowances to be auctioned.

 

Most East European countries appear opposed to the proposal to move beyond the 20% greenhouse gas emission target. For the time being, only the European Commission has analysed this option.

 

 

Regarding Poland, which is the largest of the EU newcomers and relies heavily on coal, officials say the country needs ''more time than others'' to meet its CO2 reduction targets outlined in the 'Europe 2020' strategy (20% renewables in the EU's energy mix and 20% fewer greenhouse gas emissions by 2020).

 

Polish Environment Minister Andrzej Kraszewski said he was generally in favour of ambitious reduction quotas, but stressed his belief that Poland ''needs more time than others'' to meet them.

 

The minister proposed that anti-climate change provisions should be adopted "less uniformly," explaining that 94% of Poland's electricity comes from coal and thus more attention should be devoted to developing clean coal technologies.

 

Kraszewski was particularly critical of 'Europe 2020' for proposing a possible increase in emission cuts to 30%. He believes that such an option should only be considered if similar reduction plans are adopted by the biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, like the US and China.

 

Otherwise, the European economy will become less and less competitive, he warned (for more details, see EurActiv 24/06/10).

 

 

In Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU and its most energy-intensive economy, industry representatives have labelled the 20/20/20 targets "unrealistic".

 

According to the Sofia government, burden sharing on emission reduction targets still needs to be agreed in case the Union decides to move to a 30% target. There is still no such burden-sharing between member states, said Milia Dimitrova, director of climate change policy at the Bulgarian Environment Ministry.

 

Dimitar Brankov, deputy president of the Bulgarian Business Association (BBA), said the new schemes for emissions reduction would mostly affect the energy sector – and more specifically thermal power stations, some of which would close.

 

According to Brankov, alternatives such as photovoltaic installations or wind farms are very expensive, so he called for the country to develop further nuclear capacities that will provide an opportunity for low-carbon development at the lowest cost to society. However, the EU does not consider nuclear energy as a renewable source (for more details, see EurActiv 25/06/10 and Dnevnik 25/06/10).

 

 

Romanian President Traian Basescu declared recently that his country was not supportive of the goal of reducing carbon emissions by 30% by 2020, and would prefer the targets to remain at 20%.

 

"We will support remaining at the initial EU objectives. It's easy to understand why. We are a country that develops and, anyway, the 20-20-20 objective is difficult enough and costly for Romania," said Basescu.

 

Indeed, government officials say that the 20% objective is attainable. Alexandru Sandulescu, general director at the Economy Ministry, confirmed this and said: "At the moment there is a national action plan to promote renewable energies, which should have been communicated by the end of July."

 

 

In Slovakia, the former government led by Robert Fico declared the targets of the 'Europe 2020' strategy to be "illusionary". Although the country in general supports common climate and energy policies at EU meetings and plays a constructive role, it lacks a comprehensive approach to the implementation of the EU's legislative package on climate and energy at national level, EurActiv Slovakia reported.

 

In its 'National Action Plan for Renewables' presented to the European Commission, Slovakia confirms the target of producing 14% of its energy from renewables, mainly from biomass and biogas. This is described as the most cost-effective way of reaching the CO2 reduction targets by 2020.

 

Under the new government led by Iveta Radičová, the policymaking culture in Slovakia could change, experts say. A controversial decision to dissolve the Environment Ministry at the end of Fico's term – in order to make savings – sent a signal that the environment is not among Slovakia's top priorities.

 

The new government of Radičová, however, has decided to keep the Environment Ministry in place. It remains to be seen which ministry will coordinate the implementation of the EU's climate and energy package and other EU legislation affecting climate change, emissions and related energy issues (for more details, see EurActiv 01/07/10).

 

 

In the Czech Republic, the government has said it can reach its national renewables target by 2020 and even exceed it.

 

Jana Chloubová from the government's press department argues that the Czech government can exceed the 13% national renewable goal by 2020, citing a target of 13.5%. ''We will support renewables until our commitments are fulfilled. You cannot just speak about minimum renewables support,'' Chloubová said. ''All the renewables business associations agreed with the allocation of a 13% quota between the renewables sectors [biomass, wind, solar, etc],'' she added.

 

Energy efficiency appears to be the key word, as the Czech Republic intends to reduce its dependency on imports of gas from Russia and coal mining.

 

In particular, the Czech Environment Ministry advocates building low-energy houses under the framework of a 'Green Savings' programme. The Czech Republic has raised funds for this programme by selling emission credits under the Kyoto Protocol on greenhouse gas emissions. The expected overall allocation for the programme is up to 25 billion Czech crowns: just over €970 million (for more details see EurActiv 30/06/10).

 

 

In Hungary, meeting the 20/20/20 target is seen as a reachable goal, not by decreasing production like in the past, but by promoting renewable energy and boosting energy efficiency. According to experts, it is in the country's best interests to improve its energy efficiency and reduce its consumption, not least due to the country's huge reliance on imported energy – around 70%.

 

Hungary's energy consumption trends reveal a less favourable picture than the EU average. Although total energy consumption fell by almost 10% between 1990 and 2004, the proportion of gas consumption grew by 30%, mainly for district heating.

 

Like in the Czech Republic, experts said that renewable energy could help Hungary to reduce its dependency on imports, provided that it modernises its buildings. Experts also warned that the energy mix should be determined on the basis of professional criteria, and not by lobbyists (for more details see EurActiv 12/07/10).

 

 

In France, the 'Europe 2020' climate targets were preceded by the the so-called 'Grenelle de l’Environnement' process of wide public consultations, which led to a 2009 law setting out the principles and objectives that France should follow.

 

The law was adopted almost unanimously by the French parliament. A second law, Grenelle 2, will establish concrete measures for achieving the initial objectives and should be adopted very soon (see EurActiv 23/06/10).

 

While political consensus emerged during Grenelle 1, Grenelle 2 sparked fierce debate. The socialist and green opposition accused the centre-right government of backtracking on ambitious measures due to pressure from lobbyists who want looser regulation. This setback means that France will fail to meet its EU objectives, they claimed.

 

The national target for renewables as a share of the country's energy mix is 23%. The government stands accused of preventing any further development of the wind sector by increasing administrative processes, for example by multiplying the number of authorisations required to build windmills.

 

The final objective, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% compared to 1990 levels, will be tackled by many measures. Regarding transport, Grenelle 2 incorporated the Eurovignette Directive into national law, which sets tolls for heavy goods vehicles.

 

France Nature Environnement (FNE), an NGO, was very critical of the implementation of a kilometre-based tax on heavy goods vehicles, which was postponed until 2012 – ''a worrying signal on which FNE will remain more than watchful''.

 

In Germany, the country wants to reduce its CO2 emissions by 40% by 2020. Nevertheless, Rainer Brüderle of the Free Democratic Party (FPD) – the junior coalition partner in the German government – and the largest trade associations are opposed to the EU's 30% goal, EurActiv Germany reports.

 

Brüderle is warning of a one-sided rise in CO2 reductions. Tougher, isolated European climate protection requirements would result in additional costs for industry, which would thus relocate to countries with less strict requirements, he claims.

 

It is not just the government that is harbouring disagreement – the economy is too. The Federation of German Industries (BDI) fears that "each additional burden jeopardises the recovery". BDI Managing Director Werner Schnappauf sees German industry getting involved in the issue of climate protection like no other.

 

Another objector is the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK). Brussels needs to change the focus of its climate policy towards more investment, not higher costs, says Martin Wansleben, managing director of the DIHK.

 

Meanwhile, the Verband der deutschen Maschinen- und Anlagenbauer (VDMA) is committed to the 30% goal. Germany's mechanical engineers are world market leaders in energy-saving technologies and hope for good orders in Europe.

 

German Environment Minister Norbert Röttgen foresees investment incentives from which the German economy in particular could benefit. "Technologies for climate protection will be the lead market in the 21st century," he stated.

 

His ministry is afraid that the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology and trade associations will initially try to block the European 30% goal and, after that, the German 40% goal.

 

Meeting the EU's '20/20/20' objectives on greenhouse gas emission reductions and renewable energies is one of the five priorities of a draft ten-year economic plan unveiled by the European Commission in March, called 'Europe 2020' (EurActiv 03/03/10).

 

The strategy defines five headline targets at EU level, which member states will be asked to translate into national goals reflecting their differing starting points:

On 20 June, the EU member states adopted the 'Europe 2020' strategy for growth and jobs. The new strategy includes the '20/20/20' targets for greenhouse gas emission reductions and renewable energies outlined in the EU's climate and energy package, but also allows for a possible further increase in emission reductions – to 30% – if the European Commission sees this as attainable.

 

In a series of articles, the EurActiv network presented the state of play in individual EU countries on each of the targets. This series looks at how member states react to the environmental 20/20/20 targets.

 

According to the EurActiv medianetwork Eastern EU countries have either rejected or dismissed as irrelevant the planned EU target to reduce poverty (EurActiv 06/05/10). Most will adopt national research and development (R&D) targets that are below the EU-wide goal of spending 3% of GDP on R&D by 2020 (EurActiv 04/06/10).