[Texgreen] Europe to call for energy revolution

[Roger Baker]

http://www.planetark.com/dailynewsstory.cfm/newsid/39698/story.htm


EU to Urge "New Industrial Revolution" in Energy

BELGIUM: January 5, 2007


BRUSSELS - The European Commission will call next week for "a new  
industrial revolution" in the energy sector to boost competition,  
protect the climate and ensure security of supply, a draft paper from  
the EU executive showed.

The draft strategy proposals, obtained by Reuters on Thursday before  
publication on Jan. 10, call for cutting carbon dioxide emissions  
further, increasing energy from renewable sources and curtailing the  
powers of large energy companies.
The draft lacks crucial details as the European Union's executive  
Commission is divided over the scope of liberalisation and where to  
set various targets, a Commission source said.

The EU's priority should be to combat climate change, promote jobs  
and economic growth and reduce the bloc's reliance on energy imports,  
the draft said.
"This means transforming Europe into a highly efficient and low CO2  
energy economy by catalysing a new industrial revolution,  
accelerating the change to low carbon growth and, over the period of  
years, dramatically increasing the amount of local, low emission  
energy," it said.

The draft confirmed previous reports that the Commission would  
propose two options for reducing the might of big European utilities,  
rather than draw up new legislation.
The more radical option, which sources say is opposed by France and  
Germany, would break up companies that own power stations and  
distribution grids such as E.ON or RWE in Germany and France's EDF.

The second option would create "a full Independent System Operator,  
where the vertically integrated company remains owner of the network  
assets and receives a regulated return on them, but is not  
responsible for their operations".

NEW EMISSION TARGETS

Commission sources said Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes and  
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson had pushed hardest for  
liberalisation of the sector while Industry Commissioner Guenter  
Verheugen and Transport Commissioner Jacques Barrot, who are German  
and French respectively, opposed radical changes.
The draft leaves blank spaces for the targets for cutting greenhouse  
gas emissions, which are widely blamed for global warming, and for  
raising renewable energy production.

Senior Commission officials discussed those details on Thursday and  
are due to meet again on Monday before the full Commission meeting on  
Jan. 10.
The draft said global emissions should be halved by 2050 compared  
with levels in 1990 and that the EU should show world leadership on  
the issue.
The draft also said it should be up to national governments to decide  
whether to produce nuclear energy.

The electricity sector will need some 900 billion euros (US$1.186  
trillion) in investment over 25 years to replace ageing capacity and  
cope with rising demand, it said.
The draft envisaged three ways to improve regulation of the energy  
sector, with the most radical option being "a new body at Community  
level with the responsibility of setting rules for the EU electricity  
and gas market covering regulatory and technical issues relevant to  
make cross-border trade work".

The measures, including others to improve management of oil and gas  
stocks and better interconnectivity of power grids among EU  
countries, will represent the core of a Common European Energy  
Policy, giving the bloc one voice in dealing with third countries.
The draft said the EU should consider proposing this year a major  
international agreement on saving energy with the aim of signing it  
during the Olympic Games in Beijing in 2008.




Story by Marcin Grajewski