Applying resource efficiency principles to the analysis of EU-27 bioenergy options by 2020 – Findings from a recent study for the European Environment Agency

The Renewable Energy Directive sets a target for the European Union (EU) to consume 20% of its final energy from renewable sources by 2020 and further targets are under discussion. EU renewable energy targets will lead to a substantial increase in the demand for bioenergy. As for other sectors, it is important, therefore, to apply the principles of the EU Resource efficiency roadmap to bioenergy production: producing more output with less material input and minimising adverse environmental impacts during the entire production life cycle. This paper uses that concept to analyse the most resource efficient ways for reaching the 2020 bioenergy targets (as set out in National Renewable Energy Action Plans).Scenario analysis with three different storylines is used to model environmental and land use implications plus total bioenergy potential and GHG reductions in 2020 from the agricultural, forest, and waste sectors. These storylines vary in environmental ambition level and economic and political assumptions and explore plausible bioenergy development paths. They show substantial variance in terms of environmental impact and the GHG efficiency between different bioenergy pathways.The modelling shows that under Storyline 1 bioenergy targets of the National Renewable Energy Action Plans would be achieved with CO₂ eq emissions of 44 kg GJ⁻¹, i.e. 62% less GHG emission than if the energy were generated using fossil fuels. In contrast, stricter environmental constraints in Storyline 3 lead to a substantially lower CO₂ eq burden of 25 kg GJ⁻¹, which represents an 80% reduction compared to fossil fuels.     

Greenhouse gas emission reduction perspectives in the Baltic States in frames of EU energy and climate policy

The goal of this paper is to estimate the perspectives of the Baltic States: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on meeting the new European Union climate commitments, i.e., to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20% to the year 2020 in comparison with 1990. This ambitious target could be reached based on other EU climate and energy package commitments: increase of the share of renewables and improvement of energy efficiency as tools for fulfilling the GHG emissions reduction target.The paper gives an overview on the current situation and future plans of the Baltic States in the field of energy efficiency, consumption of renewables and reduction of GHG emissions.     

Methodology proposal for territorial distribution of greenhouse gas reduction percentages in the EU according to the strategic energy policy goal

A 20% reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2020 is one of the main objectives of the European Union (EU) energy policy. However, this overall objective does not specify how it should be distributed among the Member States, according to each one’s particular characteristics. Consequently, in this article a non-linear distribution methodology with dynamic objective targets for reducing GHG emissions is proposed. The goal of this methodology is to promote debate over the weighting of these overall objectives, according to the context and characteristics of each member state. First, an analysis is conducted of the situation of greenhouse gas emissions in the reference year (1990) used by the EU for reaching its goal of reducing them by 20% by 2020, and its progress from 1990 to 2007. Then, the methodology proposed was applied for the year 2020 on two territorial aggregation levels following the EUROSTAT Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS), in the EU-15 and EU-27 member countries and on a regional level in 19 Spanish Autonomous Communities and Cities (NUTS-2). Weighting is done based on CO₂ intensity, GHG emissions per capita and GHG emissions per GDP. Finally, several recommendations are provided for the formulation of energy policies.     

Analysis of the EU policy package on climate change and renewables

In 2009 the EU decided to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at least by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990 and to supply 20% of energy needs by 2020 from renewable energy sources. This paper uses an energy model coupled with a non-CO₂ greenhouse gas model to assess the range of policy options that were debated to meet both targets. Policy options include trading of renewable targets, carbon trading in power plants and industry and the use of the Clean Development Mechanism to improve cost-efficiency. The models also examined fairness by analysing the distribution of emission reduction in the non-emission trading sector, the distribution of CO₂ allowances in the emission trading sector and the reallocation of renewable targets across Member States. The overall costs of meeting both targets range from 0.4% to 0.6% of GDP in 2020 for the EU as a whole. The redistribution mechanisms employed significantly improve fairness compared to a cost-effective solution.     

Can sunflower provide biofuel for inland demand? An integrated assessment of sustainability at regional scale

Biofuels could reduce reliance on fossil oil, while helping to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promoting rural development. This study assessed the viability of using local biodiesel production from sunflower in Tuscany (Italy) to meet inland demand for diesel fuel in compliance with the European Directives. A crop growth model, GIS and geostatistics were used to identify suitable areas for biodiesel production, considering potential sunflower yields alongside essential sustainability criteria: energy efficiency and greenhouse gas (GHG) savings throughout the supply chain. Simulation results indicate that biodiesel potential, estimated at 95,000 t/year, corresponds to 104,400 tCO₂ eq/year of GHG saved and to 26,500 TOE/year of fossil energy saved. Two scenarios of biodiesel requirement, derived from EU targets, were evaluated. The results of the evaluation indicated that the 2010 target of replacing 5.75% of transportation diesel fuel can be met, while the 2020 target (reaching a 10% of replacement) cannot be met, since local biodiesel production could replace only 4.78% of diesel fuel requirement. A third scenario considered replacing diesel fuel currently used in the agricultural sector. Results showed that the fuel requirement of this sector cannot be fulfilled since biodiesel could cover only approximately 36% of the expected demand.     

ACROPOLIS: An example of international collaboration in the field of energy modelling to support greenhouse gases mitigation policies

Energy models are considered as valuable tools to assess the impact of various energy and environment policies. The ACROPOLIS initiative, supported by the European Commission and the International Energy Agency, used up to 15 energy models to simulate and evaluate selected policy measures and instruments and then compare their impacts on energy systems essentially in terms of costs of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) reduction and energy technology choice. Four case studies are formulated considering policies and measures on renewable portfolio schemes and internationally tradable green certificates, emissions trading and global GHG abatement target, energy efficiency standards and internalisation of external costs. The main focus of the project is on the electricity sector. From a large set of quantified results, ACROPOLIS provides an international scientific consensus, on some key issues, which could be useful in assessing and designing energy and environment policies at the world, European and national/regional levels. It concludes that the Kyoto targets (and their continuation beyond 2010 in specific scenarios) could be achieved at a cost around 1% of GDP through global emissions trading, indicating also that this flexibility mechanism is a more cost-effective instrument for GHG mitigation than meeting the goal domestically without trade. It demonstrates that internalising external costs through a price increase reduces local pollutants (SO_x, NO_x, and others) and it produces other benefits such as triggering the penetration of clean technologies in addition to the curbing of CO₂ emissions.     

The sustainability challenge of meeting carbon dioxide targets in Europe by 2020

Following the Kyoto Protocol, the European Union obligated itself to lower its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 20% below their 1990 level, by the year 2020. Carbon dioxide is the major GHG. To fulfil this obligation, the nations must meet the sustainability challenge of countering rising population plus affluence with the dematerialization of less energy per GDP plus the decarbonization of less carbon per energy. To test the feasibility of meeting the challenge, we analysed carbon dioxide emission during 1993–2004. Although emissions in the entire Union grew only by an average of 0.31% per year, emissions and their drivers varied markedly among the 27 member states. Dematerialization and decarbonization did occur, but not enough to offset the slight population growth plus rapidly increasing affluence. To fulfil its obligation in the next 12 years, the EU27 would have to counter its increasing population and affluence by a combined dematerialization and decarbonization 1.9–2.6 times faster than during 1993–2004. Hence, fulfilling its obligation by addressing fossil carbon emissions alone is very unlikely.     

The EU Renewables Directive—What is the fuss about trading?

Considerable argument about trading in green electricity certificates (GECs) preceded the publication of the proposed EU Renewables Directive in early 2008. The proposed Directive set a binding target of 20 per cent of EU energy to be derived from renewable energy by 2020 broken down into targets for each member state. Those arguing for trade in green certificates, called certificates of guaranteed origin (GO), included major electricity companies. However, the idea of mandatory trading was opposed by the main renewable energy industry lobby groups. The proposed Directive limited trading in accordance with the demands of the renewables industry pressure groups. Analysis suggests that if member states were forced to trade to achieve a mandatory target of 20 per cent target, then GEC prices would rise to high levels because the demand for tradeable certificates would be much higher than their supply. Trading is unlikely to improve the prospects for meeting the targets. A system of nationally based ‘feed-in tariff’ systems would not face the problems of uncertain certificate prices faced by compulsory trading in GECs.     

Energy efficiency trends and policy in Slovenia

The energy dependency of Slovenia is high (52.1%), but it is a little lower than the average energy dependency in the EU 27 (53.8%). Slovenia imports all its petroleum products and natural gas and partly coal and electricity. The energy intensity of Slovenia is higher by about 50% than the average in the EU 27. The target of the EU Directive on energy end-use efficiency and energy services adopted in 2006 is to achieve a 9% improvement of EE (energy efficiency) within the period 2008-2016. The new target of the EU climate and energy package “20-20-20 plan” is a 20% increase in EE by 2020. Since 1991 the Slovenian government has been supporting energy efficiency activities. The improvement of EE was one of the targets of strategic energy documents ReSROE (Resolution on the Strategy of Use and Supply of Energy in Slovenia from 1996 and ReNEP (Resolution on the National Energy Programme) from 2004 adopted by the Slovenian National Assembly (Parliament) in previous years. The Energy Act adopted in 1999 defines the objective of energy policy as giving priority to EE and utilization of renewable energy sources. The goals of the “National Energy Action Plan 2008-2016 (NEEAP)” adopted by the Slovenian government in 2008 include a set of energy efficiency improvement instruments in the residential, industrial, transport and tertiary sectors. The target of the NEEAP is to save final energy in the 2008-2016 period, amounting to at least 4261 GWh or 9% of baseline consumption. The indicators of energy efficiency trends show considerable improvement in the period from 1998 to 2007. The improvement of EE was reached in all sectors: manufacturing, transport and households. The paper analyses the structure, trends of energy consumption and energy efficiency indicators by sectors of economic activity. A review of energy efficiency policy and measures is described in the paper.     

Methodological proposal for territorial distribution of the percentage reduction in gross inland energy consumption according to the EU energy policy strategic goal

A 20% reduction in the consumption of energy is one of the main goals of the European Union’s (EU) 20/20/20 Energy Strategy. But the uniform application of this overall goal to all of the countries is neither fair nor equitable, as it does not take into consideration the characteristics of the energy system in each Member State. This article therefore proposes a nonlinear distribution methodology with objective, dynamic goals for reducing gross inland energy consumption, according to the context and characteristics of each member state. We hope it will open discussion on how these overall goals can be weighted. Then we analyse the situation of the energy indicators related to energy efficiency in the reference year (2005) used by the EU for reaching its goal of reducing the gross inland consumption by 20% by 2020, and its progress from 1996 to 2007. Finally, the methodology proposed is applied to the year 2020 on the NUTS0 territorial level, that is, to members of the EU, according to the EUROSTAT Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS). Weighting is done based on energy intensity, per capita gross inland consumption and per capita energy intensity in two scenarios, the EU-15 and EU-27.     

Electricity generation from renewable energy sources in Poland

AbstractFor the European Union's Member States 2001/77/EC Directive on the promotion of electricity produced from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market determined targets for 2010 of 21% share of electricity from renewable energy sources in total electricity consumption. Particular Member States adopted different measures for development of renewable and in consequence they achieved different results. Poland, being Member State of the EU since 2004 has accepted target of 7.5% for electricity generated from renewable energy sources until 2010. Currently, in this decade, new 2009/28/EC Directive on the promotion of the use of energy from renewable sources plays significant role in development of renewable energy sources. Directive set new target for 2020. Nowadays is a time for summary and assessment of results fulfilling Directives and monitor progress of new targets. Article presents measures implemented for renewable source energy development, also current state and perspectives of using of renewable energy sources in Poland and in the EU.     

Can China benefit from adopting a binding emissions target?

In the run-up to the Copenhagen climate summit, the USA announced an emissions reduction target of 17% by 2020 (relative to 2005), and the EU of 20–30% (relative to 1990). For the same time horizon, China offered to reduce the CO₂-intensity of its economy by 40–45% (relative to 2005), but rejects a legally binding commitment. We use the targets announced by the EU and the USA to analyze the potential gain for China if it were to adopt a binding emissions target and join an international emissions trading scheme. We show that China would likely benefit from choosing a binding target well below its projected baseline emissions for 2020.     

Building a low carbon society

This paper presents the strategy of the European Union in the field of energy and climate change. At the heart of the package are three commitments to be met by 2020: to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%, to ensure that 20% of final energy consumption is met with renewable sources, and to raise energy efficiency by 20%. This strategy is based on the scientific consensus drawn by the International Panel for Climate Change, and implements the EU political strategy to limit the anthropogenic temperature rise to no more than 2 °C. A Directive for the geological storage of CO₂ is another integral part of the package. This should enable the development and subsequent deployment of zero emission power plants. From a research and technology perspective, the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) lists several energy technologies which will be required to reconcile economic growth and a vision of a decarbonised society. The EU climate and energy package and the SET-Plan are part of the solution both to the climate crisis and to the current economic and financial crisis. They represent a green “new deal” which will enhance the competitiveness of EU industry in an increasingly carbon-constrained world.     

Five years left – How are the EU member states contributing to the 20% target for EU's renewable energy consumption; the role of woody biomass

The European Union has set ambitious targets of raising the share of EU energy consumption produced from renewable resources from 20% by 2020 to 27% by 2030. The aim of this paper is to assess the role of woody biomass in renewable energy as gross final energy consumption in the European Union (the EU-28). The paper identifies leading and lagging countries in biomass development by focusing on their current biomass use and forecasts future perspectives. The research compares and evaluates the role of biomass in renewable energy in the EU-28 focusing on countries' potential resources and policy support. The study shows that all countries are making efforts to reach the 20% target in 2020 and exhibit a trend of increasing renewable energy as gross final energy consumption towards the new target of 2030. Solid biomass plays an important role in reaching the EU's renewable energy targets. The majority of the EU-28 countries are close to reaching their national renewable energy targets and show a very attractive biomass development. Unless energy consumption decreases however, some member states will face serious problems in reaching their renewable energy target in 2020. Following our analysis, the largest problems occur in those MS having a relative high-energy consumption pattern: France, Germany and the United Kingdom. It is unlikely that they can comply with expected renewable energy demand, unless they mobilize more woody biomass from their available domestic potential (France, Germany) or considerably increase their woody biomass imports (mostly wood pellets) from elsewhere (United Kingdom).     

The implications of the Kyoto project mechanisms for the deployment of renewable electricity in Europe

EU energy/environmental policy has at least two major and interrelated goals: to increase the percentage of electricity from renewable energy sources (RES-E) and to control the emission of GHG cost efficiently. These two goals could be in conflict. This paper explores one aspect of this conflicting relationship, namely the effect that the use of the Kyoto Protocol project mechanisms (CDM/JI project) may have on the deployment of RES-E within EU borders.The main conclusion is that, under certain assumptions (i.e., no mandatory EU RES-E quota), CDM/JI projects might reduce the incentive to deploy RES-E within EU borders because they would allow European power companies to comply with GHG targets in a cheaper way than if they reduced emissions by investing in renewable electricity in Europe. This is problematic, since many benefits from renewable electricity are local and these would be gone. This situation would be different if a mandatory RES-E quota (combined with an EU-wide TGC scheme) was implemented. In this case, the RES-E target would be fulfilled and CDM/JI projects would only affect RES-E deployment exceeding the target.     

Industry lobbying and the political economy of GHG trade in the European Union

The European Union (EU) has committed itself to meet an 8% greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target level following the Kyoto agreement. In September 2003 the EU member states has agreed on the Directive for establishing a scheme for GHG emission allowance trading within the European Union. This directive is the outcome of a policy process started by the EU Commission and its Green Paper from March 2000. The main industrial stakeholders all had the opportunity to comment on the Green Paper and from their positions we will analyse how far they are winners or losers compared to the final directive proposal. Comparing the initial Green Paper proposal (before lobbyism) to the final directive (after lobbyism) gave us a unique possibility for measuring the effect of lobbyism. Here, we find that the dominant interest groups indeed influenced the final design of an EU GHG market. This industrial rent-seeking most prominently leads to a grandfathered permit allocation rule like the one found in the US tradeable permit systems.     

A post-2020 EU energy technology policy: Revisiting the strategic energy technology plan

With the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan) expiring in 2020, the EU needs to revisit its energy technology policy for the post-2020 horizon and to establish a policy framework that fosters the achievement of ambitious EU commitments for decarbonization by 2050. We discuss options for a post-2020 EU energy technology policy, taking account of uncertain technology developments, uncertain carbon prices and the highly competitive global market for energy technologies. We propose a revised SET Plan that enables policy makers to be pro-active in pushing innovation in promising technologies, no matter what policy context will be realized in the future. In particular, a revised SET Plan should include a more technology-specific focus, provide the basis for planning and prioritization among decarbonization technologies, and should be based on a comprehensive approach across sectors. Selected technology targets and EU funding of innovation should be in line with the SET Plan prioritization.     

Forest owner motivations and attitudes towards supplying biomass for energy in Europe

The European Commission expects the use of biomass for energy in the EU to increase significantly between 2010 and 2020 to meet a legally binding target to cover at least 20% of EU's total energy use from renewable sources in 2020. According to estimates made by the member states of the EU, the direct supply of biomass from forests is expected to increase by 45% on a volume basis between 2006 and 2020 in response to increasing demand (Beurskens LWM, Hekkenberg M, Vethman P. Renewable energy projections as published in the national renewable energy action plans of the European Member states. ECN and EEA; 2011. http://https://www.ecn.nl/docs/library/report/2010/e10069.pdf [accessed 25.04.2014]; Dees M, Yousef A, Ermert J. Analysis of the quantitative tables of the national renewable energy action plans prepared by the 27 European Union Member States in 2010. BEE working paper D7.2. Biomass Energy Europe project. FELIS – Department of Remote Sensing and landscape information Systems, University of Freiburg, Germany; 2011). Our aims were to test the hypotheses that European private forest owners' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy (1) can be explained by their responses to changes in prices and markets and (2) are positive so that the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target can be met. Based on survey data collected in 2010 from 800 private forest owners in Sweden, Germany and Portugal our results show that the respondents' attitudes towards supplying woody biomass for energy cannot be explained as direct responses to changes in prices and markets. Our results, furthermore, imply that European private forest owners cannot be expected to supply the requested amounts of woody biomass for energy to meet the forest biomass share of the EU 2020 renewable energy target, at least if stemwood is to play the important role as studies by Verkerk PJ, Anttila P, Eggers J, Lindner M, Asikainen A. The realisable potential supply of woody biomass from forests in the European Union. For Ecol Manag 2011;261: 2007–2015, UNECE and FAO. The European forest sector outlook study II 2010–2030. United Nations, New York and Geneva; 2011 [abbreviated to EFSOS II] and Elbersen B, Staritsky I, Hengeveld G, Schelhaas MJ, Naeff H, Böttcher H. Atlas of EU biomass potentials; 2012. Available from: http://www.biomassfutures.eu [accessed 14.10.2013] suggest.     

Imbalance in Europe's Effort Sharing Decision: Scope for strengthening incentives for energy savings in the non-ETS sectors

Europe's 2020 greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction target consists of two sub-targets: one for the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) sectors and one for the non-ETS sectors. The non-ETS target covers CO₂ emissions in buildings, transport and non-ETS industry and non-CO₂ GHG emissions. The non-ETS target is known as Europe's Effort Sharing Decision. This article discusses the GDP per capita method the European Commission has applied in setting Member State specific targets for the non-ETS (“the effort sharing”) and shows that it results in an imbalanced reduction effort among the Member States. It turns out that the principal mechanism of the GDP per capita method (low-GDP countries get room to catch up with high-GDP countries by allowing them to increase emissions) is obscured by the non-CO₂ GHGs, the baseline projections of which are highly policy-induced and not correlated with the growth of GDP per capita. We propose an alternative method that (1) corrects for the policy-induced decrease of non-CO₂ GHG emissions and (2) is based on energy savings potentials. This approach could be used in future target setting for non-ETS sectors – including in the case that the overarching EU-wide target would be strengthened – and would provide a direct support to Europe's energy savings ambitions and policies.     

GHG emission trading implications on energy sector in Baltic States

The article deals with the issues related to the implementation of EU greenhouse gas (GHG) emission trading scheme in Baltic States. The main objectives of the article are to analyse the main features and requirements of EU emission trading scheme and to assess the results of the first trading GHG trading period based on verified GHG emissions in Baltic States. The main aim of the article is to compare GHG emission trading results among Baltic States and provide with some insights for the next GHG trading period and assess possible implications on energy sector of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.