EU Green Energy Debate Pits UK vs. Germany

Technical meetings work on national plans; Germany says must be consequences if goals not met.

Britain and Germany will line up on opposite sides of a European Union green energy debate starting next month on how to meet agreed renewable fuel targets for the next decade.

The 28 member states agreed climate and energy goals last October, but to make it easier to get a deal, the decision went only as far as a framework.

In outline, the 2030 agreement includes cutting greenhouse gases by at least 40 percent versus 1990 and raising the share of renewable energy to at least 27 percent from 20 percent by 2020.

The emissions target will be mandatory in the wider framework of U.N. climate goals to be reviewed in Paris at the end of the year.

So far, the 2030 renewable goal is binding only at EU-wide level and the challenge is to ensure it is met as the bloc as a whole cannot be fined for infringement.

Germany, which is pushing through its Energiewende, or shift from nuclear to green energy, wants binding laws.

In has produced a position statement circulated over the summer weeks in Brussels referred to by diplomats as "the 'what if?' paper".

"In the end, there has to be a consequence if the contributions do not add up to at least 27 percent. There is no point in pretending there won't be any," the German paper, seen by Reuters, says. "The heads of states agreed on an EU binding target - not on an EU-hoping-target."

Portugal also takes a firm line in another paper designed to influence diplomats. It says "a strong governance system" with "clear compliance mechanisms" is needed to attract investors.

Campaigners agree.

"Investors' confidence for clean energy will develop only on the back of a strong and reliable governance system," Imke Luebbeke, policy officer at campaign group WWF, said.

In the opposite camp, Britain aligned with the Czech Republic in a joint paper urging a "light-touch and non-legislative" approach.

Luxembourg, holder of the EU presidency until the end of the year, says governance, as the formal implementation of the outline policy is known, is a priority.

After a preliminary meeting in July, closed-door technical talks begin in earnest in mid-September.

One EU official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said progress will be difficult, but there are "points of agreement". "There has to be some system of national plans and cross-border sharing," the official said.

More is at stake than numerical goals.

Whether the European Commission can fulfil its ambition to pool energy resources across EU borders and curb dependence on external suppliers, such as Russia, is also in question, analysts say.

"It (governance) essentially decides whether the plans for an energy union can become successful, or whether they do not move beyond the nice ambitions phase," Tim Boersma of Washington's Brookings Institution said.
 

By Barbara Lewis