Unlocking a Low-Carbon Europe

This report from the U.K.-based Green Alliance explores how policy changes can move the continent to a stable climate and a low-carbon economy by rewarding clean energy and eliminating subsidies that reward polluting power plants.

From the introduction to the report:

Amongst the host of challenges that face Europe in 2010, there are none more pressing than the twin tasks of securing a stable climate and moving to a low-carbon economy. No member state can tackle these tasks alone; cooperation is the only route available. Successful action on climate change is therefore a litmus test for the EU’s ability to deliver on its core purpose as a facilitator of shared efforts to meet common goals.

Furthermore, Europe’s existing climate policies also have their own timetable interface with the new decade. The Climate Action and Renewable Energy (CARE) package negotiated in 2008 commits the EU to a 20 per cent share of renewables in its energy mix and a minimum 20 per cent reduction of carbon emissions by 2020. These commitments will form a central delivery challenge for the next 10 years, and will remain at the top of the agenda to be defined in 2010.

While climate change is the EU’s top external challenge, the EU budget arguably ranks as one of its most politically significant and as yet underused policy levers for delivering on this task. And here too 2010 will be a crucial year with implications for the whole decade.