Brussels warns that the plans of the 28 against climate change are insufficient

They are not enough. But there is still time to improve them. This is the main conclusion of the European Commission’s analysis of the energy and climate plans that the governments of the 28 member countries have had to present. Brussels on Tuesday called on countries to increase their efforts and be more “ambitious”. In particular, in the implementation of renewable energies, in energy efficiency and in the fight in general against greenhouse gases, responsible for climate change according to scientific consensus. The countries have until the end of the year to present the final documents and attend to the recommendations made by the Commission on Tuesday.

The plan presented by Spain stands out in the evaluation presented on Tuesday by the Commission and on several occasions is used as an example of good practices and ambitious objectives. In fact, EU sources have pointed out that the five most ambitious plans are those of Estonia, Denmark, Lithuania, Portugal and Spain. By contrast, a number of Eastern European states still lag far behind. In its recommendations, the Commission calls on countries such as the Czech Republic, Slovakia or Poland to increase their level of ambition. Although not only those states take that reprimand: it also urges partners such as Belgium or the United Kingdom to raise their claims.

As Brussels recalled in its final assessment, these plans are crucial to combating warming. The next decade will be key in the international fight against this problem. Because it will be when the Paris Agreement is applied, which obliges all its signatories to present plans for cuts in greenhouse gas emissions. And because the planet, as they warn from the scientific field, is running out of time to be able to leave the warming within manageable limits. “We cannot see [estas medidas] it as a cost, but as an investment for the European economy to reach climate neutrality by 2050,” said Commission Vice-President Maros Sefcovic, head of energy.

To implement the Paris Agreement, the European Union has been building a legal framework that includes the energy and climate plans it is now evaluating. For the first time, Sefcovic recalled, each member of the EU has had to present its own and set itself the objectives for the next decade of emission reduction, implementation of renewables, efficiency … The energy sector accounts for around 80% of all greenhouse gases in the EU economy, hence the importance of these plans. The sum of all these national plans must be sufficient for the whole of Europe to meet its international objectives: to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40% by 2030 compared to 1990 levels.

But what has been presented so far by the States is not enough, as the Commission has highlighted. After examining each of the plans, the Community executive has formulated to each of the countries a battery of recommendations, in which it asks for more concreteness in the measures or to set more ambitious goals. Countries now have until December to make the relevant changes to their drafts. “The final plans must reflect an even higher level of ambition for the European Union to properly channel the fight against climate change and the modernisation of our economy,” warned Climate Action and Energy Commissioner Miguel Ángel Arias Cañete.

Renewable

For example, in renewables, the objective already approved for the EU as a whole for 2030 is to reach at least 32% of the share of clean energy in final consumption. But the sum of all the plans remains between 30.4% and 31.9%. Among the countries missing that target are four of the EU’s six largest economies: Germany, the UK, Italy and Poland. For this reason, Brussels has called on several states to increase their renewable energy targets to break that gap.

In the report, the Commission recalls that the introduction of renewables is positive not only for the fight against warming and pollution, but also for reducing the EU’s energy dependence. Arias Cañete was convinced that with the recommendations it will be possible to achieve the goal set for renewables.

He was more concerned with the goal of energy efficiency, of at least 32.% by 2030. There the plans stay at best at least two points from that goal and, in the worst case, six. In this case, all countries should revise their plans upwards, according to the Commission. “There is room for improvement,” recalled the commissioner, who still wanted to remember that this evaluation allows the EU to move towards the objectives set with a “fully integrated” system.

On the positive side of this analysis, as community sources have highlighted, is Spain. In the field of renewables, Brussels highlights that the most ambitious objectives are those presented by Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Lithuania and Portugal. In the case of energy efficiency, it is also noted that the best plans are those of Italy, Luxembourg and Spain.

The EU Executive, however, believes that it is time to put on high beams and look towards 2050 as the date for the total decarbonisation of the energy sector. For this reason, Arias Cañete claimed that “after the latest changes in Germany” (Chancellor Angela Merkel was open to achieving that goal), several countries “press” at the European Council on Thursday towards that direction. The first draft of conclusions of that meeting, which may still be subject to multiple changes, points out that the EU must set a strategy at the beginning of 2020 on which a “just transition” towards that climate neutrality can be carried out, although for the moment the member countries avoid putting a date on that horizon.

Spain was the last of the European partners to present this energy and climate plan, but an analysis by the European Climate Foundation already qualified it as the best of the 28. That report also warned that the 28 were falling short, as the Commission now confirms.

GOODBYE TO COAL IN EIGHT COUNTRIES

The European Commission’s report highlights that eight countries have presented concrete timetables for closing their coal-burning power plants. “France intends to do so in 2022. Italy and Ireland in 2025. Denmark, Spain, the Netherlands, Portugal and Finland by 2030,” the analysis highlights.

The report also mentions that Germany has communicated its intention to put an end to coal to generate electricity. But the German government is using 2038 as the date for that end.

Source: The Country