Seven EU governments have urged the European Commission to set an ambitious, binding energy efficiency target as part of the 2030 climate and energy policy package.
Germany, Denmark, Ireland, Belgium, Portugal, Greece and Luxembourg have called on the commission’s president Jose Manuel Barroso to propose an energy saving goal as negotiations on the 2030 package gathers speed.
“A target is essential to highlight the importance of energy efficiency, and a strong political commitment is crucial,” the letter, seen by Next Energy News, said.
“The current situation in Ukraine emphasises the importance of reducing dependence on imported oil and natural gas,” it continued.
The current 2020 package includes a 20% efficiency target, which is set to be missed, but a replacement objective for 2030 did not emerge when the commission revealed an early framework in January 2014.
The letter also calls for efficiency in more than just the power sector.
“The European emission trading scheme (ETS) is currently only able to provide incentives in the electricity and parts of the industry sector, while other sectors like transport, buildings, trade, services and private households are not addressed by the EU ETS. Hence, there is a need for a new energy efficiency policy and target,” it states.
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In a seemingly coordinated move, Greenpeace revealed an IPSOS survey that found that 86% of citizens in four countries that have blocked an efficiency goal, would actually support one. Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and the Czech Republic are blamed in some quarters for blocking the legislation. They group is more industrialised than many other EU nations and is concerned that it would be hit hardest by the changes.
The UK originally wanted neither a renewable energy goal or an efficiency target.