Energy strategy: EU energy strategy based on flawed and manipulated research
Today the International Energy Agency (IEA) presented its World Energy Outlook in London and tomorrow the European Commission will publish its second Strategic Energy Review, which will outline the priorities for the EU energy policy for the coming years. Analysis commissioned by the Greens/EFA group in the EP has revealed serious flaws in the research guiding the Commission's strategic energy review. Rebecca Harms and Claude Turmes, energy spokespeople for the Greens/EFA group comment on these papers:
"It is nothing short of scandalous that the research behind the 2nd Strategic Energy Review is so flawed. This crucial document is supposed to outline the framework for future EU actions in the energy policy field, yet it is based on completely inaccurate assumptions.
"The IEA has today for the first time ever acknowledged publicly that oil resources are diminishing and oil prices will rise considerably. The inevitability of peak oil can no longer be denied. At the same time however, the European Commission has produced a Strategic Energy Review, which fails to truly recognise the massive impact that peak oil will have on our economies and societies.
"Peak oil poses the greatest threat to our energy security and not to put this as the priority guiding our energy policy is wrong-headed. Transport accounts for a large share of energy use in the EU. The complete failure of the Commission to deal with transport in its review is breathtaking.
"Not only is the Commission misrepresenting the challenge, its strategic review also distorts the necessary EU response. Energy efficiency must be a priority, as the cheapest and most effective way to improve our energy security. EU leaders have committed to an efficiency increase of 20% and a 20% share of renewables by 2020. The Commission's assumption for future energy needs is not in line with these targets .
"This flawed review cannot be the basis for EU policy in the crucial area of energy. We hope the Parliament and Member States will send the Commission back to the drawing board.
"One disturbing aspect of the IEA report is its apparent recommendation to abandon the climate policy target of limiting global warming 2°C. Scientific experts argue that an absolute limit of 2°C is essential to avoid dangerous climate change. Yet the IEA is arguing that the 2°C climate target would prove too costly and that rather a 3°C strategy should be adopted. Accepting 3°C of warming is simply unacceptable. It is to accept massively increased devastation due to climate change, including exposing hundreds of millions of people to increased water stress."
Read the Greens/EFA commissioned analysis paper:
Europe's energy future and the EU's second Strategic Energy Review