27-Nation Bloc Sets Costs and Targets to Cut Greenhouse Gases
By Aoife White
Associated Press
Thursday, January 24, 2008
BRUSSELS, Jan. 23 -- European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Wednesday that a new package of measures to fight global warming would cost the equivalent of three euros, or about $4.35, per week for each European Union citizen.
The E.U. plans to slash greenhouse gases by a fifth by 2020, imposing costs on major polluters and rapidly scaling up how much energy it draws from windmills, solar panels and energy crops.
Barroso told the European Parliament that the bloc's 27 nations were ready to make further carbon dioxide cuts if trade partners would join a global pact to cut emissions and limit global temperature increases.
"This package meets the challenges of the future. We think it's good for the planet, it's good for the European economy and it's good for its citizens," he said.
"The additional effort needed . . . would be to less than 0.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2020," he told the E.U. lawmakers who must vote on the project.
The price of not doing anything would be more than 10 times that, he said.
The E.U. executive will set caps for how much greenhouse gas each E.U. nation can release to hit the target of cutting levels by 20 percent below 1990 levels in 2020 -- or 14 percent below 2005. No country will have to cut emissions by more than a fifth.
Europe also plans to draw a fifth of its overall energy from renewable power by 2020.
However, the centerpiece of the program -- a carbon cap-and-trade program for heavy industry -- will carry a much more expensive price tag, as it will probably raise electricity bills and may cause the cost of manufacturing in Europe to soar above other regions.
The E.U. insists that would be balanced by a $72 billion reduction in the bloc's bill for oil and natural gas imports, while a low-carbon revolution within Europe would generate "first mover advantage" for a wave of energy-efficient goods and renewable power technology for export.
Environmentalists say that the E.U. plan -- while the first of its kind to reduce CO2emissions -- won't go far enough to limit rising world temperatures.
At the same time, industries worry that the price of going green will cost production and jobs. E.U. trade unions said they were worried about the risk of major job losses if companies move abroad, saying 50,000 jobs in the steel sector were at risk.
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