Eurocommissaris Oettinger morrelt aan EU-doelstellingen inzake decarbonisering

Onder de titel, 'The Deepening Crisis of Europe’s Climate Policy', schetste Benny Peiser, die is verbonden aan de Britse 'Global Warming Policy Foundation' (GWPF), daarvan de contouren in een uitstekend overzichtsartikel. Ik pik er een aantal citaten uit.

The EU's unilateral climate policies face a deepening crisis. Given the manifest reluctance of the world’s big emitters to accept any legally binding carbon targets and in face of our economic crisis, Europe should undertake a comprehensive review of its economically damaging climate and renewables targets and — in the absence of an international agreement — should consider the suspension of all unilateral policies that threaten Europe’s economic recovery.
 
Climate policy is no longer a big item on the EU's agenda and the climate mania is gradually coming to an end after almost 20 years. Poland is vigorously blocking any new CO2 emission targets at EU level. There is growing support among Eastern European governments to block any new unilateral climate targets permanently.
 
In the past, Poland's intractable hostility to green unilateralism was greeted by universal protestation in capitals around Europe. Today, it is hardly noticed by the media while green campaigners have become elderly and limp. Other and more pressing concerns are taking precedence and are completely overriding the green agenda. ...
 
Across Europe, the green agenda is becoming increasingly unpopular. Voters and energy intensive industries are ever more hostile to climate policies because they are inflating energy bills and heating costs. In light of global disagreement over the future of climate policy, hardly any European government is clamouring for green leadership. Even Germany and France no longer want to go it alone. Many European governments simply refuse to go beyond the 20 per cent emissions target.
 
It is becoming ever more evident that currently favoured solutions to climate change are not in themselves economically viable. What is more, the whole green agenda is confronted by rising doubt and criticism.
 
The Emissions Trading Scheme and other unilateral schemes have become a growing threat to Europe’s competitiveness and economic recovery. It puts European businesses and, in particular, energy-intensive users at a disadvantage with regards to cost and international competitiveness.
 
It does not make any sense to make industry and manufacturing, in particular, increasingly uncompetitive — or to drive it out of the continent. Nor does it make sense to weaken Europe’s crisis-ridden economies by driving up energy costs and increasing fuel poverty. ...
 
The international deadlock and the public backlash against green taxes show that conventional climate and green energy policies have no future. No wonder then that even the European Commission is seriously considering whether to discontinue its unilateral decarbonization strategy in the absence of a global agreement.
 
In the draft of its Energy Roadmap 2050, the commission warns that “if co-ordinated action on climate among the main global players fails to strengthen in the next few years, the question arises how far the EU should continue with an energy-system transition oriented to decarbonization.”
 
Europe is also facing the threat of a global trade war over its unilateral climate policies. A group of nearly 30 nations are considering possible retaliation against the European Union's new emissions trading law - which obliges international airlines, regardless of nationality, to pay for CO2 emissions when using European airports. 

The emissions trading scheme is the main vehicle of the EU's climate policy. Its unilateral cap on emissions remains a huge and growing burden on European economies and industries because all other major trading nations have rejected similar measures. European consumers are facing up to the reality that their political leaders have already squandered more than €200 bn on a completely inane and ineffective project. A recent report by Swiss bank UBS revealed that the ETS has cost European consumers a staggering €210 billion - for "almost zero impact" on cutting emissions. ...

The financial crisis is forcing European governments to cut subsidies and incentives for green energy programmes which are not sustainable, let alone during a prolonged period of austerity. Companies too are reducing their green energy investments as natural gas is becoming ever more attractive, increasingly shifting investment away from renewables.
 
Shale gas promises the start of a new era of cheap, abundant and relatively clean energy. In a growing number of European countries, energy companies have begun to drill rigs to explore potential shale deposits and its commercial extraction. ...

In sharp contrast to extremely costly green energy policies, the shale revolution has progressed without any taxpayer-funded subsidies, government targets or tariffs. It is driven exclusively by new technologies that make shale exploration profitable.
 
Given the manifest reluctance of the world’s big emitters to accept any legally binding carbon targets and in face of our deepening economic crisis, Europe should undertake a comprehensive review of its economically damaging climate and renewables targets and — in the absence of an international agreement — should consider the suspension of all unilateral policies that threaten Europe’s economic recovery.

Lees verder hier.

Is Benny Peiser een roepende in de woestijn? Gelukkig niet! Binnen de Europese Commissie poogt Eurocommissaris Norbart Oettinger, die de energieportefeuille beheert, thans de economische verwoesting, veroorzaakt door het milieu/klimaat/energie/decarboniseringsbeleid, dat de overgrote meerderheid van zijn collega's heeft gesanctioneerd, geleidelijk ongedaan te maken.

Onder de titel, 'Leaked Strategy Paper: EU Plans To Phase Out Green Energy Subsidies', rapporteerde Hendrik Kafsack, in de 'Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung' (FAZ):

The economic cost of the expansion of renewable energy could become prohibitively expensive. Subsidies in the EU for solar and wind power should be phased out as quickly as possible. That is what the European Commission says in an internal draft strategy paper that EU Energy Commissioner, Günther Oettinger, will present in Brussels early next month.
 
In doing so, the EU Commission is supporting the German government which wants to reduce solar subsidies by up to 30 percent, a plan which has met with resistance in the Upper House of the German Parliament.
 
The expansion and especially the maturity of renewable energy such as solar and wind power have grown much faster than expected, the strategy paper points out. The cost of photovoltaic systems, for instance, had fallen by 48 percent in the last five years. The cost for the construction of offshore wind farms had decreased by 12 percent since 2008. In light of these developments, member states would have to make their programmes more flexible to phase them out.
 
If green subsidy programmes are too rigid, there is a risk that producers would be over-compensated and the cost of developing renewable energy would become intolerable, the paper warns. The sharp decline in the cost of many new green energy sources together with the strong expansion of solar and wind energy had driven the cost for consumers and, in some cases, for taxpayers sharply higher. For many people, energy costs were already too high, especially in light of the difficult economic situation today. The price for renewable energy such as solar and wind power would therefore have to be left entirely to the forces of the free market and as quickly as possible.

Lees verder hier.

Hoewel zijn voorstellen te weinig en te laat zijn, verdient Norbart Oettinger m.i. toch steun. Zijn plannen gaan in ieder geval in de goede richting.

 

Voor mijn eerdere DDS-bijdragen, zie: