European Union and its member states have agreed to reduce the use of conventional energy sources of energy and increase the use of renewable energy sources to achieve a target up to 32 per cent up from their previous goal of 27 per cent. The agreement will need to be formally approved by the EU parliament and council over the coming months.
The trade body for European energy utilities have called it, ‘a well-balanced compromise’.
Miguel Arias Cañete, EU climate commissioner, said, “This new ambition will help us meet our Paris agreement goals and will translate into more jobs, lower energy bills for consumers and less energy imports.”
He added, “This deal is a hard-won victory in our efforts to unlock the true potential of Europe’s clean energy transition.”
European Union (EU) is a political and economic union with 28 member states including United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Ireland.Whether this target will be applied on the United Kingdom after it exits from EU will depend on the respective exit deal.
EU took this decision to increase use of renewable energy over conventional energy mainly to phase out the use of palm oil which is a major import from Southeast Asia.
It also aimed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions up to 40 per cent by 2030. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and ozone. The majority of these gases come from combustion of fossil fuels, coal, natural gas, oil. To reduce these gases, EU has decided to eliminate use of palm oil, encouraging small producers of renewable energy to stay in the race of global competition of renewable energy generation.
There will be review of this target in 2023 to decide whether this target can be shifted to a higher level. This is a major improvement over the 2016’s target of 27 per cent.
