European Council debates 2030 framework for climate and energy policy

On this issue Dr. Brigitte Knopf, head of the research group “Energy Strategies Europe and Germany” at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:
“If the EU commission this week announces a domestic greenhouse gas reduction target of at least 40 percent until 2030, this would be in line with scientific findings of what is necessary to limit the risks of man-made global warming. It clearly is an important step. However, it is also the minimum of what needs to be done if one wants to mitigate climate change. In addition to an emissions reduction target it would make sense to have an ambitious EU target for scaling up renewables, and energy efficiency. Importantly, effort sharing within the EU has urgently to be addressed to translate the sublime targets into action on the ground.”

On this issue Prof. Ottmar Edenhofer, chief economist of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research:
“It is about time now to fix the most important instrument of the European climate policy, the emissions trading system EU ETS. Without a working ETS, it’s difficult to see the climate targets to be put in practice. In a recent report we suggest introducing a minimum price as well as a maximum price for emissions allowances. This would help stabilizing investor’s expectations and hence trigger investments in low carbon technologies. Second, in addition to the power sector both transport and heat production should be put under the European cap and trade system. This is a matter of fairness between businesses, and it would help speeding up emissions reductions.”

Weblink to the EMF28 model comparison of EU’s climate and energy policy: http://www.worldscientific.com/doi/pdf/10.1142/S2010007813400010

Weblink to Euro-CASE report on EU ETS: http://www.acatech.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Baumstruktur_nach_Website/ Acatech/root/de/Aktuelles___Presse/ Presseinfos___News/ab_2014/Euro-CASE_policy_paper_ETS_reform.pdf