New Alarm Over European Renewable Energy Targets

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 2, 2003 (ENS) - European Union countries are failing to take seriously their obligations to promote renewable energy, the conservation organization WWF alleged today. The group's latest warning comes ahead of a key legal deadline this month for national implementation of the EU's 2001 renewable energy law.

The prospects for renewables' share of electricity are not satisfactory, and could worsen further as a result of the power blackouts and brownouts that have affected European countries this summer and autumn, cautioned WWF's Dr. Stephan Singer.

Demands and plans for dramatic expansion in generating capacity based on new fossil fuel power stations are multiplying, warned Singer. He called for a redoubled emphasis on achieving greater energy efficiency.

European Union member governments have until October 27 to transpose the renewables directive into national law. By the same time they are required to have in place systems to guarantee the origin of renewable electricity.

Dr. Stephan Singer of WWF (Photo courtesy WWF-Germany)

Not only is no member state clearly on track to meet its 2010 target, WWF complains, but there is very little evidence of work towards the law's other October 2003 requirements. "We've not seen a single report yet," Singer told reporters.

WWF repeated previous calls for the law's current "indicative" targets to be replaced by more ambitious, legally binding ones. The group said that barriers relating to grid access and bureaucracy are nevertheless emerging as "the most critical" issue for the immediate future.

As well as introducing "feed-in" financial support schemes for renewable electricity producers, governments should give renewables priority access to grids, the group said.

WWF says EU governments should also streamline administrative requirements and clarify planning guidelines.

According to WWF's latest assessment, the amount of electricity generated from renewable sources will reach 15 to 17 percent across the European Union by 2010, falling short of the law's target of 22 percent.

All 15 EU countries are likely to miss their national indicative targets, the group warns, marking a deterioration in expectations since last year.

At the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa the European Union launched the Renewable Energy Coalition, and more than a year later, the European Commission is still committed to increasing the amount of energy generated from wind, solar, geothermal and biomass sources.

Environment Commissioner Margot Wallstrom told the European Parliament's Sustainable Development Inter-Group in Strasbourg, on September 24 that the coalition now has more than 80 members.

The Middelgrunden wind farm, completed in 2001, is located in the sea just off Copenhagen harbor in Denmark. (Photo courtesy The Open University)

In June, she hosted the first ministerial conference of the coalition, and the European Commission has agreed to host the coalition's secretariat.

"We will work intensively in the coming months," said Wallstrom, "to ensure the coalition is fully consolidated in time for the 2004 World Renewable Energy Conference in Germany." The conference is scheduled for June 1 through 4 in Bonn.

The World Council for Renewable Energy will hold the second World Renewable Energy Forum May 30 and 31 in Bonn in advance of the conference. The forum will address the proposals of international NGOs, such as WWF, in the field of renewable energy. The World Council for Renewable Energy will present an Earth Charter for Renewable Energies at this forum and discuss it with all nongovernmental promoters of renewable energies.

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