Europe became the world leader in tackling climate change recently, when 27 governments agreed to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 20% and commit the European Union to generating a fifth of its energy from renewable sources within 13 years.
Greenpeace has hailed it as the ÂÂbiggest decision taken to fight global warming since the Kyoto protocol 10 years ago.
European leaders said it was a historic pact, and the German leader, Angela Merkel, was praised for steering it through in spite of opposition from France and Eastern Europe.
Merkel is to host a summit of leading industrial countries in June, at which she will seek to persuade the United States, China, India and ÂÂothers to follow Europe’s example.
The two-day EU summit in Brussels boosted outgoing French President Jacques Chirac, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair by recognising nuclear power as one way of reducing emissions.
Blair said the measures chimed with proposals to be outlined in a climate-change Bill set to be tabled in the British Parliament and in an energy White Paper being drafted.
“These are a set of groundÂÂbreaking, bold, ambitious targets,” he said. “It gives Europe a clear leadership position on this crucial issue facing the world.”
Merkel, chairing her first EU summit, said she was “very satisfied” with the outcome, but warned that the world had to act “to avoid what could well be a human calamity”.
She announced that Brussels would come up with new rules within two years on more energy-efficient street lighting and domestic light bulbs. “It’s a sensible and practical step where people can make a difference,” she said.
In an unusual and generous verdict on a meeting of European governments, Greenpeace said: “EU leaders deserve top marks for pushing climate change to the top of the agenda. Other nations should now sign up and follow their lead.”
The European Commission is charged with drawing up detailed plans on how to implement the package.
That could take months or years of horse-trading, as individual countries among the 27 EU members haggle over the burden-sharing that needs to be agreed to make the plan a reality.
The summit breakthrough, following disputes on nuclear energy, renewable sources of power, and whether the targets should be binding or voluntary, means greenhouse gas emissions have to be cut 20% across the EU by 2020, although Europe will go further to 30% if an agreement can be struck with the US and other key countries.
All 27 members have to achieve a 10% minimum target on the use of biofuels for transport by 2020.
The pact stipulates that the provision of 20% of Europe’s energy consumption needs from renewable sources such as wind and solar energy is compulsory.
Within that overall target, however, there can be great variations on how much individual member states contribute.
Poland and the Czech Republic complained they were being penalised unfairly since they could not afford the investment in renewable resources, lacked the required natural resources, and were far behind Germany and Scandinavia in the use of renewables.
France’s priority was to water down the renewables pledge to accommodate the fact that most of its energy is supplied by carbon-free nuclear power. President Chirac, at his final EU summit, in the end cheered the “exemplary” agreement as “one of the great moments in the history of Europe”, likening it to the creation of the euro and the establishment of a separate European defence identity.
Margaret Beckett, the British Foreign Secretary, said: “We have got ambitious but achievable targets on emission reductions, on renewable energy, efficiency, biofuels and a deployment action plan on carbon capture and storage. It is a big achievement.
“The EU is not only showing global leadership, but showing it on an issue that is really important to the people of Europe.” — Â