Caspian Report - Issue: 08 - Fall 2014

At its last meeting on October 23 rd , the
European Council finally agreed on a
common framework on climate and energy
policy for the period 2020 to 2030.
At its last meeting on October 23 rd ,
the European Council finally agreed
on a common framework on climate
and energy policy for the period
2020 to 2030. The Heads of State
and Government of the 28 member
states of the EU decided after
long negotiations that by 2030 the
EU must reduce its greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions by 40% with reference
to the 1990 baseline. More
precisely, economic sectors covered
by the European Emission Trading
Scheme (ETS), i.e. power plants,
smelters, paper factories and the
like, must reduce their emissions by
43%, while non-ETS sectors (buildings,
transportation, small enterprises,
etc.) must globally decrease
their GHG emissions by 30%.
Other three targets are part of the
climate and energy deal struck in
Brussels. The first concerns renewable
sources of energy which must
represent at least 27% of the European
gross final energy consumption;
however, this binding goal
must be reached at the European
level and does not involve any specific
enforceable target for individual
member states. The second target
is merely indicative and is about energy
efficiency: by 2030 the EU must
reduced its total energy consumption
by at least 27% with reference
to the consumption level foreseen by
the business as usual scenario computed
in 2007. Finally, by 2030 any
EU member states must be well interconnected
with the energy grids
of its neighbours; more specifically,
any state must have interconnections
with the electric networks of it
neighbours equal, at least, to a 15%
of its own generation capacity; the
European Commission (EC) will report
on the issue and try to fully exploit
any financial resource available
for the completion of already selected
projects of common interest.
The agreement reached in Brussels
confirms the commitment of the EU
to fight against climate change and
lead on-going international negotiations
that are supposed to achieve
a meaningful conclusion at the UN
Conference in Paris next year. Indeed,
a couple of weeks after the
European Council agreed on the
2030 policy framework, America
and China followed suit, unveiling a
framework agreement on GHG emissions,
according to which America
will reduce emissions by 26-28%
by 2025 (the baseline year adopted
here is 2005), while China will augment
the use of low carbon energy
sources and stop the increase of its
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CASPIAN REPORT, FALL 2014