Renewable energy goal based on GDP

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://uk.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUKL2241148420071122

Renewable energy goal based on GDP

Thu Nov 22, 2007 7:35pm GMT

By Jeff Mason

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Wealthier countries in the European Union will have to do more than poorer nations to meet a goal of boosting EU renewable energy usage under proposals being developed by the bloc's executive branch.

EU countries' gross domestic product will partially determine how much they will have to contribute to an EU target to have 20 percent of the bloc's energy use come from renewable sources such as wind or solar power by 2020, an official said.

EU leaders agreed in March to make the 20 percent target binding, but capitals have cringed at taking on too great a share of that overall goal. Renewable sources currently account for 8.5 percent of the 27-nation bloc's energy consumption.

The European Commission has been working on how to divide up the goal. It will propose that all states make an across-the-board increase of 5.75 percentage points, regardless of current national levels of renewables, said Tom Howes, an official at the Commission's energy division, on Thursday.

A further 5.75 percentage point increase would be divided up using a calculation based on GDP.

Combined, the two elements would achieve the 11.5 percentage point increase required to meet the 2020 goal.

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[Nihil]

1. Seems a good place to start ...

... and about as fair a stake in the ground as any.

Now stop talking about it and JFDI 'cos I bet you'll be revisiting
the target in a few years when the effects are starting to bite
"faster than expected" and the earlier we start, the better the
chance of ramping up to meet the *real* targets will be.