The EU Legal Frameworks - The Sustainability of Renewable Energy in Europe - page 2

renewable energy sources (RES) in the EU mix energy, and to get a 20 % increase
in energy efficiency by 2020. Currently, the EU has already achieved the first two
objectives, and there are all the conditions to achieve an improvement in energy ef-
ficiency by 2020. The worldwide objective related to climate change is to contain
within 2 °C global warming produced by climate change. The 2 °C cap on global
warming was established in the Copenhagen Conference on climate change in 2009.
The agreement has replaced by the Kyoto Protocol which would have been expired
in 2012. The ambition of the conference was to be able to extend the Kyoto targets
in 2020 or 2050, engaging in a binding even those nations which had not acceded to
the Kyoto Protocol (i.e., the USA) or who were exempted from the cuts in emissions
of GHG for not curbing their growth (such as China, India, Brazil, emerging nations
among the developing countries). In this framework, the European Commission re-
confirmed in February 2011 the EU objective of reducing GHG emissions by 80 %
by 2050 compared to 1990 levels.
To this end, the European Commission on 22 January 2014 has recently pro-
posed new and important goals for 2030 through the “2030 framework for climate
and energy policies” as an intermediate step to achieve the goal of longer term to
2050 (European Commission 2014 ).
The key elements of the climate and energy package in 2030 established by the
European Commission are as follows.
• A binding goal of reducing GHG . Essential element of EU policy, it establishes
a 40 % reduction in GHG emissions compared to 1990 levels, to be achieved
through action at national level. The reduction of the maximum annual emissions
of the sectors included in the EU emissions trading system (ETS) would increase
from the current 1.74 to 2.2 % after 2020. The emissions from sectors not cov-
ered by the ETS should be reduced by 30 % below the level of 2005, with efforts
equitably shared among the member countries.
• A binding target on the overall consumption of RES . On the basis of a more mar-
ket-oriented approach, the EU abandons national targets for an overall EU target
of 27 % of RES by 2030. To member states will thus be accorded some flexibility
on how to transform their energy system. This is certainly an important and con-
troversial point since the new directive does not contain any mandatory target for
individual nations in terms of RES, but only a target “to achieve all together.”
• Energy efficiency . The role of energy efficiency in the context in 2030 will be
further considered with a review of the Energy Efficiency Directive ready by
the end of 2014. The European Commission will assess the potential need for
changes to the existing rule once the review is completed.
• New indicators . The European Commission proposes a new set of key indica-
tors to assess progress over time, such as the energy price gap between the EU
and major trading partners, diversification of supply and self-supply of domestic
energy sources, and the ability of member states' liaison.
• Reform of the EU ETS . The European Commission proposes to establish a re-
serve for the stability of the market at the beginning of the next trading period of
the EU ETS in 2021, in order to deal with the surplus of allowances that is made
over recent years, to improve the system's resilience to shocks, by automatically
adjusting the supply of allowances to be auctioned.