Reuters AlertNet Lite - EU business slams emissions, renewables targets

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EU business slams emissions, renewables targets

10 Jan 2007 12:31:34 GMT
Source: Reuters

BRUSSELS, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The European Union must not adopt a new target for cutting greenhouse gas emissions unless other parts of the world follow suit or else the bloc's industry will suffer, a top business lobby said on Wednesday.

"Business needs predictability but far-reaching unilateral EU targets for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases are unacceptable," UNICE President Ernest-Antoine Seilliere told reporters.

The European Commission proposed on Wednesday a wide-ranging package of energy measures to make supplies to the 27-nation bloc more secure and limit climate change. EU governments will have the final say on its adoption.

It proposed cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels and that 20 percent of EU power should come from renewable sources by 2020.

"EU business strongly supports the battle against global climate change but the EU cannot win this battle by going it alone," Seilliere said.

The bloc has been critical of the United States for refusing to sign the Kyoto Protocol on cutting gas emissions.

UNICE said the renewables target in the package was unrealistic and would harm companies that are major consumers of power.

If nuclear energy fails to increase or even shrinks, the "increased demand for renewable energies will be such that their price will skyrocket, making the envisaged EU energy strategy virtually impossible to sustain", the lobby said.

Some countries such as Germany are phasing out nuclear power and the EU package leaves it up to individual member states to decide on the issue.

Seilliere said the EU should negotiate energy contracts with outside suppliers.

On one of the most sensitive items, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Brussels favoured splitting up the generation and distribution businesses of power companies as the best way to inject more competition into the sector.

UNICE, backing the move, said such "unbundling" would help push down prices for consumers.

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Last updated:Wed Jan 10 12:33:16 2007