European Commission approved Energy Efficiency Plan 2011
The European Commission has developed an Energy Efficiency Plan to meet its objective to reduce EU energy consumption by 20% in 2020. The plan complements the Europe 2020 Strategy and encourages efficient use of all energy sources to guarantee environmental protection. The year 2020 is approaching and it is necessary to act fast to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and to secure energy supply. Therefore, all EU institutions, Member States and involved stakeholders should take further steps towards energy efficiency.
Buildings, transport and industry show high potential in energy saving
The Energy Efficiency Plan is one of the outcomes resulting from the call of the European Council of the 4thof February 2011. The call urged to take ‘determined action to tap the considerable potential for higher energy savings of buildings, transport and processes’. Thus, the plan focuses on the following three areas to enhance energy efficiency:
- Buildings: generating renewal processes in public and private buildings to reduce energy consumption. For instance, by using energy efficient machines or by setting criteria in public spending;
- Transport: in the upcoming White Paper on Transport this theme will be addressed in more detail;
- Industry: by improving information supply for SMEs, creating measures to introduce energy audits and energy management systems, setting criteria for industrial equipment and replacing old equipment by new generation capacity and infrastructure to transform energy into electricity and/or heat.
Targets as a tool to trigger action
In the Europe 2020 Strategy, the Commission has introduced several tools to steer Member States in reaching the 20% target. For this, a two step approach has been developed:
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Stage one: entails the national target setting process for energy-efficiency in EU Member States. The Commission will steer the process by evaluating individual efforts of each Member State, providing instruments during the development of national energy efficiency programmes and monitor the implementation through the legislative framework. In 2013 the Commission will present an assessment and based on these results decide whether these programmes are feasible to reach the target of 20%;
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Stage two: legally binding national targets for 2020 will be recommended by the Commission.
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Publication date
8 March 2011
Document type
Policy
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