Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete discussed the EU’s long-term vision for an EU economy described as: cleaner and more sustainable, more competitive, and fit for the 21st century. Commissioner addressed the vital question of what Europe should look like in 30 years in opening the discussion on UE “direction and speed of travel in the battle against global warming”.
All starts from understanding the fact that the world is changing, Miguel Arias Cañete said. “We are seeing a digital revolution. People are better connected than ever before. People are travelling more than ever before. People are living longer than ever before.” In addition, “our planet faces one of the biggest challenges ever – global warming – primarily caused by the man-made developments we have seen in the past 100-200 years”.
With these in mind, it is clear that a transition towards a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy is inevitable. And it will require stepping up efforts in all sectors of the economy.
Where are we in the low-carbon, clean energy transition
When it comes to EU emissions reduction efforts, the deals we concluded last month on Renewables, on Energy Efficiency and on Governance are particularly important. These measures include an EU level binding renewable energy target of 32% and a 32.5% indicative energy efficiency target for 2030.
The combination of these two targets – and the requirement for EU countries to establish the first ever integrated national energy and climate plans defining their contribution to these targets – means that we are in a good position to do even better than 40% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030. “Our initial calculations suggest that the European Union could consider raising the level of ambition and increase its target from the current 40% to slightly over 45% by 2030. But this is something that will become clearer in the autumn.”
The first proposal of the package – the Energy Performance in Buildings Directive – already entered into force yesterday! We have closed half of the proposals – and I am confident that we can close the remaining ones – relating primarily to electricity market design – by the end of the year, under the Austrian Presidency.
As a key element, EU decision makers have agreed to modernize the EU Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) for the period after 2020, to ensure it delivers the emissions reductions required and promotes investments. And we have seen the first signals of a market starting to take this into account.
Cañete also underlined that the Commission is not just addressing climate change in our climate and energy policy initiatives. “In the transport sector, for example, where emissions are still higher today than in 1990, we are well on track to conclude new rules on low carbon mobility. These include new CO2 standards for cars and light vans, as well as for heavy-duty vehicles. I hope that we can still achieve great progress and adopt these by the end of the year.”
No region left behind
As for the future, one thing is clear, said Cañete: “if we want to meet the Paris goals, we will need to look at higher reductions in emissions than is presently the case for the longer term, building on our recently agreed 2030 targets for renewables and energy efficiency”.
“While our current approach to reduce emissions by at least 80% is compatible with a 2°C objective, our long-term strategy will have to consider more ambitious options in order to achieve 1.5°C. We will look at multiple pathways to achieve a range of ambition levels. Clearly this will include also looking into pathways to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 2050.”
Cañete mentioned the fact that cost of renewables have dropped enormously in recent years – solar panels are more than 80% cheaper to produce than they were 10 years ago –, so “we need to consider the likely developments in terms of technological innovation and economies of scale. The energy sector will be a major vehicle for progress here, but all industrial sectors have scope for major changes.”
EC’s official stressed that this transition is likely to imply broad societal transformation. “We will see changes in the nature of work and the types of jobs available. While overall this will be a positive development, with more local jobs, some sectors and regions will face transition challenges. We need to be willing to identify these and address them and ensure that no region is left behind.”