EU Signals Shift In Europe’s Energy Strategy

The European Union’s economic problems mean the bloc should be more flexible in the way it promotes a low-carbon economy and should broaden the focus of its energy policy beyond purely reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to ensuring that energy will remain affordable, the EU’s energy chief said. Mr. Oettinger’s comments signal a shift in the EU’s clean-energy strategy, with a bigger focus on keeping down costs to preserve the competitiveness of the bloc’s economy. In 2007, when the EU set its last binding targets for 2020 for greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy and efficiency, it focused almost exclusively on climate protection, Mr. Oettinger said. –Jan Hromadko, The Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2013

The EU’s chief scientific advisor has said that evidence allows the go-ahead for extracting shale gas, the energy source at the centre of a European policy tug-of-war. Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard has adopted a less favourable tone on shale gas, believing its extraction in Europe bears little comparison with the United States. But Anne Glover, the chief scientific adviser to Commission President José Manuel Barroso, contradicted this view and gave a scientific green light to shale. –EurActiv, 11 April 2013

2013-04-12 05:33:19

Source: http://climatechangedispatch.com/11148-eu-signals-shift-in-europe-s-energy-strategy.html