Posted on September, 07 2017
The European Parliament’s Environment Committee today adopted a forward-looking Opinion on the revision of the Energy Efficiency Directive, considerably improving the European Commission’s proposal.
MEPs included a 40% binding energy efficiency target for 2030, while the Commission had proposed 30%. They also removed some loopholes that would undermine the directive’s mandatory 1.5% annual cut in energy consumption.
“It’s a bright day for energy efficiency. The Environment Committee has lived up to its name - its proposed 40% target would further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, moving us towards our Paris climate goals. Moreover, better energy efficiency is good for people’s health, wallets, and the economy”, commented Arianna Vitali, senior policy officer for energy conservation at WWF European Policy Office.
“MEPs on the Industry and Energy Committee must follow the strong lead given today when they vote on their report in November”, added Vitali.
More information:
Today the Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted and adopted its 'Opinion' on the Energy Efficiency Directive. They included a 40% binding target. They also removed some of the ‘loopholes’ which undermined the annual energy savings obligation (Article 7 of the directive) - for example, the fact that energy used by transport was excluded from the calculation of the annual 1.5% energy savings goal.
This Opinion must now be taken into account by the lead committee on the directive, the Industry, Transport and Energy Committee (ITRE). ITRE will vote and adopt its report on 27-28 November. The final report then goes to a plenary vote before the full European Parliament.
Arianna Vitali
Senior Policy Officer for Energy Conservation
WWF European Policy Office
avitali@wwf.eu
+32 2 743 88 16
Sarah Azau
Senior Communications Officer
WWF European Policy Office
sazau@wwf.eu
+32 473 573 317
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