"The European Union needs an ambitious and effective strategy for energy efficiency until 2030", said the spokesman on environment of the biggest political group in the European Parliament (EPP- Christian Democrats), Dr. Peter Liese. "To reduce CO2 and the consumption of fossil fuels, like gas and oil, no other way is more cost-efficient. The construction of new nuclear power plants, renewable energies, and CSS are much more expensive", said Liese who was also the rapporteur of the ENVI committee on the energy efficiency directive.
Dr. Peter Liese (CDU) was unanimously elected as coordinator for environment, public health and food safety by his colleagues of the biggest group in the European Parliament (EPP-Christian Democrats). The committee has been working on the most co-decision files in the European Parliament.
Read more: Peter Liese re-elected as coordinator for the biggest group of the European Parliament
The European Parliament has voted in the second round for the strengthening of the European emissions trading. To stabilize the system certificates are to be withdrawn temporally from the market. Initially, a price of about 30 Euros was calculated but in the last months it was constantly below 5 Euros
With such a low price there is only little incentive for investments in low-carbon technologies and there are no revenues for important projects financed through climate programs.
An earmarking of the revenues should pave the way for more international acceptance of the European Emissions Trading Scheme (EU ETS). This is the main result of a vote in the Parliament’s lead environment committee on the controversial issue of including aviation in the EU ETS. Already in 2008, Parliament and Council decided to include aviation in the ETS. But to give a positive signal to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) assembly in Montreal September/October last year the EU institutions limited the scope to intra-European flights for one year (Stop the Clock).
Read more: Earmarking of revenues should pave way to more acceptance in third countries