Ed Davey, the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, has this week called for the EU to stay ambitious on climate change. Critically, he put forward a proposal that the EU adopts a new climate target for 2030 that would see European emissions cut by half against 1990 levels.
Climate change is increasingly putting pressure on wildlife here in the UK - as you might have seen from last week’s ground-breaking State of Nature report – and abroad, so the RSPB has welcomed this important intervention.
Until now the only number in play was the European Commission’s woefully unambitious suggestion of a 40% cut, so Davey’s proposal has raised the stakes. It’s a start, but the problem is that Europe needs even greater ambition still if its serious about avoiding dangerous levels of climate change.
To be consistent with the internationally agreed global goal of keeping temperature rise below two degrees, beyond which we face increasingly serious risks of major extinction events and appalling impacts on people around the world, the EU needs to be on a pathway to reduce its emissions by at least 95% by 2050. Assuming a roughly linear pathway, that means having a 2030 emission reduction target of at least 55%. This target needs to be met at home, within Europe, without the use of ‘offsets’ from abroad. In terms of combating climate change, there is not a lot of point in having a target which is met by other countries reducing emissions for us.
What’s more, this week’s statement is confirmation that the UK has no intention of signing up to mandatory European-wide targets for energy efficiency and renewables. Davey argues that what counts is CO2 and that we shouldn’t prescribe what technologies are used to deliver this, leaving the door open as wide as possible for carbon capture and storage, nuclear and gas. Yet this ignores the significant benefits of such targets. They offer certainty, but, most importantly, they give our position on the international stage credibility by showing we’re serious about our climate targets and are committed to cutting our energy wastage and being a leader in developing and deploying genuine low-carbon technologies.
That’s why the RSPB is calling for a mandatory energy efficiency target of at least 40% by 2030 from 2005 levels. Cutting our use of energy is, after all, the cheapest and most nature-friendly way of reducing our emissions. What’s more, we’re supporting calls for a renewables target of a 45% share in final energy demand by 2030.