"No player in the world is as ambitious as the [European Union]," declared European Commission Pres. Jose Manuel Barroso after the EU extended and toughened its targets for greenhouse-gas emissions. Are non-EU "players" supposed feel chastened by that?
Europe is economically torpid. Thanks greatly to climate-change responses now in place, the region's stratospheric energy costs make energy-intensive industries uncompetitive and individuals in growing numbers energy-poor.
The existing program seeks by 2020 to cut GHG emissions by 20% from 1990 levels, raise the market share for renewable energy to 20%, and improve energy efficiency by 20%.
In addition to imposed hardship for individuals and businesses, the EU program features an emissions-trading scheme that barely works, mostly because it doesn't sufficiently raise costs of GHG emissions-and, by association, energy.
Yet the European Council on Oct. 23 reached a binding agreement to extend the climate-change initiative to 2030 and to toughen targets for that year to 40% for emission cuts and 27% each for renewable energy's market share and efficiency improvement.
Officials uttered the usual assurances about how painless the effort would be. How, given the European experience, can anyone believe that?
Mandated market shares for noncommercial energy raise energy costs. From that hard reality, nature and logic offer no escape.
And aggressive emission targets require suppression of overall energy use. Ultimately, that means raising costs.
Yet aspiration to world leadership fogs the official mind.
EU Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, not to be outdone by Barroso's boast, declared, "We have sent a strong signal to other big economies and all other countries: We have done our homework; now we urge you to follow Europe's example."
And UK Energy and Climate Change Sec. Edward Davey said, "Europe has sent a clear and firm message to the world that ambitious climate action is needed now."
Leaders elsewhere indeed should study Europe's example. The sensible among those who do will let the EU keep the lead in pointless sacrifice and march alone toward economic despair.
(From the subscription area of www.ogj.com, posted Oct. 24, 2014; author's e-mail: [email protected])