The Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament strongly welcomed the adoption today of a report on energy efficiency that included mandatory targets for energy savings, and urged the Council to also endorse such targets.
Speaking immediately after the vote took place in Strasbourg, Greens/EFA Group energy coordinator and MEP for Luxembourg, Claude Turmes, said:
"The EU is facing an energy crisis. But more importantly our planet’s entire climate system is at stake. With today’s vote, all of the Parliament’s political families demonstrated the importance of putting efficiency at the heart of European energy and climate policy."
The European Commission conservatively estimates that, ?without reducing comfort or standards of living, it is possible to reduce energy consumption by at least one-fifth at no extra net cost ? and in many cases negative costs?. The technical potential could be as high as 40%. The Parliament, in its vote today, requires member states to save, on average 1% of its final energy consumpt?on in the next three years. This increases to an average obligatory target of 1.3% for period 2009-2012, and 1.5% for 2012-2015.
Commenting on the targets, Turmes added:
"While we warmly welcome the results of the Parliament’s vote in favour of targets, we believe that there is huge existing energy efficiency potential still untapped. Although I am disappointed that MEPs did not follow our Group’s more ambitious proposals, we strongly call on the Council to stop simply paying lip-service and join us in adopting these obligatory targets."
"Saving energy is a win-win situation. It addresses climate change and the security of energy supply. It helps to create jobs and boosts innovation and the transfer of technologies. We should challenge the Council, and the EU Presidency, to understand these benefits and move towards ambitious mandatory energy saving targets."