European Parliament’s report calls for radical improvement of climate and energy policies

Climate action| Energy transition

A draft report on the Governance of the Energy Union Regulation released today calls upon the EU to embrace the zero-carbon transition and scale up climate action to be more consistent with the Paris Agreement.

The report forms the basis of the European Parliament’s position on the new Governance of the Energy Union Regulation, which aims at creating a framework for the EU’s energy transition in the coming decades. Authored jointly by Claude Turmes and Michele Rivasi, the lead rapporteurs from the Energy and Environment Committees of the Parliament, the report calls upon the EU to:

  • Reduce its carbon emissions to net zero by 2050 at the latest and set a clear pathway to achieve this. This will require increasing the EU’s 2030 climate target, currently set to at least 40% emission reductions.
  • Shift to a 100% renewable and fully energy efficient economy by 2050 at the latest, which includes ramping up the 2030 renewable energy and energy efficiency targets to 45 and 40 percent, respectively on the basis of national binding targets.

Commenting on the report, Wendel Trio, Director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe said:

“The report is the first genuine attempt to translate the objectives of the Paris Agreement into EU legislation. It is an unprecedented call for embracing the zero-carbon transition and scaling up EU climate commitments. It should inspire EU decision makers to ramp up targets in all EU sectoral climate and energy legislation.” 

ENDS

Contacts:

Wendel Trio, CAN Europe Director, wendel@caneurope.org, +32 473 170 887

Ania Drazkiewicz, CAN Europe Communications Coordinator, ania@caneurope.org, +32 494 525 738

Briefing: Five things you should know about Energy Union Governance, https://caneurope.org/publications/reports-and-briefings/1354-briefing-five-things-you-should-know-about-energy-union-governance

The report can be found online here: http://energyblog.claudeturmes.lu/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2017/02/COM20160759-Early-draft-Rivasi-Turmes.pdf

Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe is Europe’s largest coalition working on climate and energy issues. With over 130 member organisations in more than 30 European countries – representing over 44 million citizens – CAN Europe works to prevent dangerous climate change and promote sustainable climate and energy policy in Europe.

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