Published: December 16, 2010
The European Parliament (EP) yesterday voted to adopt a binding agreement to increase energy efficiency "at least 20 percent" by 2020.
According to the European Commission, meeting the 20-percent target could save individual households up to €1,000 annually on their energy bills, while the European Union (EU) as a whole could save some €100 billion and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by almost 800 million tons a year.
Vote Could Influence EU Energy Efficiency Action Plan
Members of the European Parliament (MEP) voted 511 to 64 to establish the 20-percent energy-savings target (57 MEPs abstained), and 336 to 305 to make the target binding. The EP passed the resolution in part to influence the next version of the European Union's Energy Efficiency Action Plan. Following several delays, the European Commission is now expected to present an update of the 2006 action plan in March 2011.
"Today's vote in the European Parliament has backed energy efficiency as the best and fastest route to green jobs, reduced import dependence, and real reductions in CO2 emissions," said Brook Riley from Friends of the Earth Europe. "Now the pressure is on the European Commission to recommend a binding 2020 target for energy savings in the Energy Efficiency Action Plan due next March."
Binding Target Needed to Achieve EU Energy Goals
The Energy Savings 2020 report, commissioned by the European Climate Foundation and the Regulatory Assistance Project, shows that at the current rate of energy efficiency the EU will only meet around half of its energy-savings target. Recent data from the European Commission show that the EU is likely to achieve only 9 percent energy savings by 2020, less than half the 20-percent target, and that energy-related emissions account for nearly 80 percent of the EU's total greenhouse gas emissions.
"Until now, member states have been reneging on their pledge to reduce energy consumption [by] 20 percent by 2020 by making insufficient progress," said Yannick Jadot, a member of the European Parliament from France. "Making the target binding will help ensure EU governments actually deliver on this potential, as it has with renewable energy."