EU plans 'industrial revolution'

The European Commission has unveiled a new energy strategy, calling on member states to cut emissions of greenhouse gases by at least 20% by 2020.

EC President Jose Manuel Barroso said there must be a common European response to climate change. New policies were needed "to face a new reality" - to make Europeans' energy supplies more secure, he said.

The urgency of the change was stressed by Russia's oil row with Belarus which hit EU states Germany and Poland.

The EU's civil service wants more investment in renewable energy, arguing that the old fuels have a political as well as clear environmental cost.
"We need new policies to face a new reality - policies which maintain Europe's competitiveness, protect our environment and make our energy supplies more secure," said Mr Barroso.
"Europe must lead the world into a new, or maybe one should say, post-industrial revolution, the development of a low-carbon economy."

But the EU should also adopt a unilateral commitment to reduce EU greenhouse emissions by at least 20% by 2020 as compared to 1990 levels.
"This will send a clear signal on how seriously we take the future of our planet," Mr Barroso added. Mr Barroso also said it was unacceptable that the supply of energy from Russia through transit countries should be interrupted without prior consultation.
He said this raised a real problem of credibility and Europe must act to guarantee that it did not happen again.

Environmental pressure group Friends of the Earth said the policy was "completely inadequate" and that it "failed to provide the low-carbon blueprint that is urgently required"."If the EU is serious about tackling climate change it must make far greater cuts in its carbon dioxide emissions. The proposed 20% cut does not demonstrate any intention to stay below the two degree limit," Catherine Pearce, the group's international climate co-ordinator, said.

There are three central pillars to this integrated energy policy, Mr Barroso said.
-A true internal energy market
-Accelerating the shift to low-carbon energy
-And energy efficiency through the 20% target by 2020

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