Business leaders are today calling on the European Union to redouble green growth efforts, strengthen the Emissions Trading System (EU ETS) and stepping up renewables and energy efficiency targets.
The Prince of Wales’s EU Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change (EUCLG) and colleagues from sister organisations the Cambridge Natural Capital Leaders Platform and The Atlas Project, all run by the University of Cambridge, will meet with EU President José Manuel Barroso along with Climate and Environment Commissioners Connie Hedegaard and Janez Poto?nik.
The group, which includes Acciona, Alstom, Coca Cola, Deutsche Telekom, Doosan Power Systems, Intel, Kingfisher, Philips, Shell and Unilever, wants to send a strong message to EU leaders that low-carbon green growth and resource efficiency are the most effective routes to economic recovery and future prosperity across the region.
The leaders of ‘progressive’ businesses realise that the economic models of the past and ‘sun-set’ industries are not serving Europe’s best interests and are “unable to offer a sustainable economic recovery”.
The EUCLG wants to see the EU ETS ‘re-calibrated’ to ensure a carbon price that does drive low-carbon investment at the pace necessary to realise the region’s 2050 emission reduction goals.
The meeting will also call on Barroso to commit at least 20% of the next multi-year budget to climate-related activities.
The business leaders echo concerns voiced by the International Energy Agency recently that limiting global temperature increases to 2°C do not look feasible at the current time unless more urgent action is taken.
“The CO2 price is currently too low to drive the essential energy efficiency measures and support the development of low carbon technologies at the required speed and scale,” says Shell’s special advisor on CO2, Graeme Sweeney. “For the European Union to meet its climate change goals, the CO2 price in Europe needs to be strengthened.”
For further information:
www.cpsl.cam.ac.uk/Leaders-Groups/The-Prince-of-Wales-Corporate-Leaders-Group-on-Climate-Change/EU-CLG.aspx
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EU must take action to reduce its environmental footprint (23-Apr)
EU must take action on energy efficiency, say campaigners (3-Apr)
European Parliament votes to prop up Emissions Trading System (29-Feb)
Article source: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/i/5073/
