PRESS RELEASE – Brussels, January 22, 2014
Today, the European Commission released a communication outlining its proposals for Europe’s 2030 targets – the centre piece of Europe’s climate and energy policy after 2020. The proposal is totally unsuitable for tackling the new challenges presented by climate change, with a target of 40% CO2 reduction, a low voluntary target for renewables and no target at all for energy efficiency.
Reinhard Bütikofer, Co-Chair of the European Green Party (EGP) commented:
“Gone are the days when Europe had a real climate and energy policy. What is left is paper work with no ambition. Instead of building on Europe’s commitment towards its 2020 strategy by setting a clear course towards sustainable growth that will lead us out of the crisis, the Commission revealed a short-sighted, economically and environmentally flawed agenda. “Not only will Europe and it’s lack of ambition lose any chance of making the Paris COP a much-needed success, its economy will lose in terms of competitiveness and job growth. The European Commission and the European Council will have to re-learn something they understood more years ago: Europe’s future and Europe’s economic competitiveness have to be built on the basis of sustainability.”
Monica Frassoni, Co-Chair of the EGP added:
“President Barroso’s ambition to leave a Green legacy from his two mandates has failed miserably. We currently have an energy paradigm where we send billions of euros out of Europe rather than employing people in Europe to save energy. The Commission had the chance to fix this by creating an energy and climate policy that started with the most cost-effective measures first. Instead the Commission has given in to the intense lobbying efforts of the large energy providers and energy-intensive industries. This is a disaster – both for Europe’s climate and our competitiveness. This is just the first step in the battle ahead to fix Europe’s regressive climate agenda. The European Parliament and the European Council can completely change this proposal, that uses the excuse of more flexibility to destroy the reality of EU-wide Green energy development ambitions. This will be a major point of the Green’s campaign in the elections in May.”
