Leaders call for tougher energy targets

BELGIUM: The heads of leading RAC equipment manufacturers are amongst leaders of companies calling on the EC to set tougher binding energy efficiency targets.

The heads of 20 leading companies from the European Alliance to Save Energy (EU-ASE), including Danfoss president and CEO Niels B Christiansen, and Didier Teirlinck, executive vice president of Ingersoll Rand, have sent an open letter to EC president Jean-Claude Juncker.

In it, the group calls on the EU president to ensure that the Commission’s proposals on the revisions of forthcoming energy efficiency legislations “are grounded on a high binding target for 2030, well above the current non-binding 27% which barely corresponds to business as usual”.

The group insists that the European Commission needs to deliver in the interest of citizens and innovative businesses: “In view of this year’s revision of the whole EU legislation in the energy and climate sector, we believe that more efforts are required to align the EU 2030 energy and climate legislative framework with the higher ambition of the Paris Agreement and with the need for a re-industrialisation driven by competitive low-carbon business models, sustainable investments, innovation and new skills.”

The group argues that doubling the EU’s current annual rate of energy productivity of around 1.5% would trigger one-third reduction of household energy bills, create at least 1.1% of additional GDP in the EU and deliver 1.2 million high-quality local jobs, mostly in the construction sector.

Noting the European Parliament’s intent to fix a binding EU energy efficiency target at 40% for 2030, the group says: “We are convinced that a single EU greenhouse gas emissions target would fail to trigger additional energy savings or stop wasteful energy use and spending.”

The European Alliance to Save Energy Energy maintains that efficiency is the key to enable energy and climate policies and would boost the competitiveness of European industry.