The move could impact upon the waste sector, with methane emitted from waste, farming and land use changes accounting for 11% of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions (see letsrecycle.com story).
The report is intended to feed into discussions by European Union environment ministers next month (June 21), who will discuss the Commission report and the proposal to move to a 30% reduction in emissions.
And, regardless of whether or not the 30% reduction target is adopted, the Commission claimed that the development of low-carbon technologies would be an “attractive” measure for Member States to pursue, which could boost the uptake of waste-to-energy treatment technologies.
At present, the UK has a 34% target by 2020 because it has a larger share of the 20% target to meet than some other member states. If the overall target was raised, it is likely that the UK's target would also go up.
Economics
In the analysis, the Commission claims that the case for increasing the reduction target is furthered by the fact that EU emissions have fallen over the past two years “as a consequence of the economic crisis” and a drop in a carbon prices.
Launching the publication, Connie Hedegaard, European Commissioner for Climate Action, said: “Whether to increase our reduction target for 2020 from 20% to 30% is a political decision for EU leaders to take when timing and conditions are right.
“Obviously the immediate political priority is to handle the [economic] crisis. But as we exit the crisis, the Commission has now provided input for a fact-based discussion. The decision is not for now, but I hope that our analysis will inspire debate in the Member States on the way forward.”
Member States
The Commission called on European Union Member States to take a “lead in this revolution” and said that the need to “modernise” the targets could help stimulate green job growth and strengthen European energy security.
European Union heads of state had agreed to invoke a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 if other major emitting countries in the developed and developing world committed to a fair share deal at the Copenhagen Conference in December 2009, which was not achieved.
Achieving the 20% target by 2020 is projected to cost €48 billion (£41 billion) per year to achieve, which is a decrease from the €70 billion (£59 billion) estimated in 2008. However, achieving the proposed 30% target is anticipated to cost €33 billion (£28.1 million) more than the 20% goal.
Technology
The Commission added that, even ahead of a possible move to a 30% reduction, it would encourage Member States to use some unallocated free EU Emission Trading System (ETS) industry allowances to accelerate “innovation in low-carbon technologies”.
It claims that this could be achieved in a similar way to existing demonstration programmes for renewable energy and carbon capture and storage technologies currently funded with 300 million allowances.
The full report is set to be published online later today.
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