The Impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy - Essay Example

The Impacts of EU Policy on Sustainable Energy Introduction Sustainable energy is described as the means by which energy provision is designed in such a way that it meets the current demands without threatening the survival of future generations. There are current developments that have been designed to ensure this is achieved with the broader definition including use of nuclear energy and fossil fuels as transitional sources. The sustainable energy sources are also referred to as renewable energy sources as the majority of the renewable energy fall under this category. Currently the whole world needs to adopt the use of sustainable energy sources especially the western nations like US, the developing nations in the south east region (China, Japan, South Korea, and Bangladesh) and the European countries as well. The European Union has recognised the citizens of the member countries need to be responsible and generate a reliable supply of sustainable energy which is also cheaper to afford so that the living standards are maintained. Furthermore the union also advocates for the reduction of the negative effects of the fossil fuels on the climate and the regional environment at large. The EU policies are designed to create a competitive internal energy market that would offer quality and cheaper services. This would mean that there would be enhanced development of renewable energy sources and cut down reliance on imported energy sources. The Current Policies and Aspects of Planning The European Union has targeted to use features that address energy education, conservation of energy, environment resource protection, energy policies, renewable energy, and distribution of energy (Mcgowan & Mansell 1992), dissemination of useful information and maintainability of energy from producers to consumers. The sustainable energy addressed includes solar power, wind power, geothermal power, tidal power, bio-fuels and wave power. Nuclear fission is some times included but it usually presents the risk of disposal problems and peak uranium levels (Haughton & Counsell 2004). The EU has not been taking the energy conservation as a serious issue until the approval of the European Energy Policy in the year 2005 in London. EU had to come up with a strategy to fund the research to exploit sustainable energy. The seventh frame program (FP7) was formed to finance the research that is underway from 2007 to 2013. The FP7 fell short of the main intention of its formation and is currently also funding Fusion research which will not achieve results on the climate change until beyond the year 2050 (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). Currently the strategic energy technology plan is in the lead and has put up plans for the EU technology procedure to develop and enhance the use of low carbon energy technologies. Some of the initiatives in the SET plan include the European Wind Initiative where turbine s will be used to generate energy. This is dependable on the daily whether variations though it can be used to provide base load electricity together with tidal wave energy. The European solar Initiative is also another type of energy that is dependent on whether and can be stored in water as heat, thermo-chemicals as ammonia and in rocks (Lovegrove & Dennis 2006). European also works under the carbon dioxide, transport and storage initiative to address the requirements of safe production of the energy implying that there should be zero emission, the sustainable nuclear fission is very important and has been put under way so that the generation of the type IV reactors are achieved. Energy Research The European Union has established an energy research alliance to facilitate the capabilities of the EU energy research which would achieve world class performance thorough sharing of the global facilities. This strategy will be the major driving force to achieve low carbon technologies and help reduce global warming. The research alliance is the chief player in development of the new energies to ensure that European Union achieves the low carbon economy (Mcgowan & Mansell 1992). The EU has targeted that a substantial amount of electricity (about 22%) should be generated by renewable means by the year 2010 from 13.9% that was being produced in 1997. The energy market is another policy that addresses the directive on internal market of electricity of 2003 and the directive on gas security of the year 2004. The security of supply of the electricity will be assured plus the fact that the market will be liberalised while sustained supply of natural gas will also be assured. The EU proposal for the partnership and cooperation was accepted by the G-8 nations in 2007 to address energy efficiency. In 2008 the G8 countries and other emerging economies like China, South Korea, India and Japan formed the international partnership for energy efficiency cooperation. The buildings policy is very critical as these structures are responsible for over 40% of energy consumption in the European market and due to this; several initiatives have been established to ensure that all new buildings and those that are being refurbished should meet some minimum requirements in terms of energy consumption. The energy performances of buildings directive also require that before sale, the buildings should undergo energy satisfaction and that the air conditioning system and boilers are inspected regularly (Pinder 1998). The policy on transport includes the ACEA agreement which is aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions especially from newer cars in European nations by at least 130 grams of carbon dioxide per km by 2012. The directive on bio fuels demands that the bio-fuels replace all fossil fuels in the transport industry by the year 2010. The emission trading directive will help the industrial emission of greenhouse gases by a considerable amount. The external relations include the work of European Union to address energy issues with other nations outside the region for instance the international treaty named the Energy Charter Treaty and even The Kyoto Protocol. The EU has also collaborated with Russia and intends to work together using the Partnership and Cooperation Agreement. The energy correspondents in member countries was established to ensure that follow up and understanding the pursuit of the initiatives and strategies of exchanging ideas in the context of external energy crisis, to help the EU to respond in time and reactions in case of energy threats. (Haughton & Counsell 2004) Assessment of EU Directives on Energy The EU energy policies are founded on the precautionary principle and in the context of EU, the principle is brought into play when urgent means are required to protect the environment and no scientific evidence is provided to show the evaluation of the threat (Pinder 1998). For the directive to be efficient and bearing in mind the diversity of institutions involved, funding and management tools available, the EU has greatly involved the general public. The major effects to be felt are expected in fields like nature and biodiversity, environmental changes, climatic conditions and health. Global warming: EU has worked very had in changing the energy policies because it wanted to reduce the rate of greenhouse gas emissions which are the major causes of these environmental changes. The target has been to limit the rate up to 2 degrees Celsius increase in temperature. Reports have indicated that keeping within the limits is likely to cut down the carbon gas emissions by 50% in the year 2050. If the temperatures remains below 2 degrees then the temperature would increase for the next about twenty years then fall to required range. The industrialized nations are being asked to implement strategies cut down the use of fossil fuels by 60 to 80% to achieve favourable economic growth and emission to the environment in 2050. The EU's target has been to cut down these emissions by 8% in 2009 to 2012. The alternative fuels are encouraged by the EU and are provided in the bio-fuels directive. Some of the methods that have been successful in addressing climate changes include the use of alternative fuels as proposed by the biodiversity directive, use of some specific solutions like legislation to regulate motor vehicle gas emissions, implementing proposal forwarded in international energy treaties like the Kyoto Protocol and analysing the climate change (Williams 1996). Integrated Prevention: implementing the cut down on emissions of the greenhouse gases has been very difficult for the EU as many nations are addicted to fossil fuels while at the same time the expenses on new machinery that does not use fossil fuels, of the production of the alternative fuel is expensive. Control directives have been issued and this integrated pollution methods, require that industrial and agricultural undertakings that are highly pollutant meet certain green conditions before acquiring permits of work. This has achieved higher level of environmental preservation. The EU Carbon Gas Emission Trade: The EU proposal of greenhouse emissions trading scheme was developed to drive the regional war on global warming and it is the largest multi country, scheme ever and it was entrenched in the green paper published in 2000. These schemes provide means to monitor and to report. This phenomenon means that some industries could trade their allocated spare carbon for cash if they could emit carbon that was below the EU specified limit, other firms can purchase extra allowances to release carbonated gases. This method does not emit carbon dioxide gases but it serves as an encouragement to the firms to go for the lowest expenses for achieving certain amount of emission reductions (Ravetz 2000). Initially, the carbon gases from big firms and other larger emitters were the only one being covered and amounted to about 45% of the Europeans union's carbon gases emission but recently it does not only cover transport though the green paper has mentioned household and transport departments severally and they will soon be included. The green paper has identified that the transport department would costly very expensively in terms of abatement of carbon dioxide. The scheme dictates 8% reduction which would be extremely costly to meet especially in that sector. The recent changes have covered the renewable sources previously not mentioned (Lovegrove et al 2007). Research have shown that the estimates in the greenhouse emissions could have been about 7% higher in the year 2005 could it not have been the EU energy policies that were proposed and it also suggest that if the EU wants to meet the targeted reductions ion carbon gas emissions it has to increases its impact on the emissions by a factor of three before the year 2020. The Renewable Energy: as the Kyoto protocol and EU's directive on renewable source of energy as an alternative gains popularity, the use of renewable energy also gains momentum. This is a major aspect of the two phenomena and constitutes the features to be measured when measuring the compliance of the Kyoto protocol. The ambitious goal of the European Union to double the use of renewable energy in the (Lovegrove et al 2007) European region from six percent to twelve percent is described by the European white paper which comprehensively covers anticipated increase use of renewable energy sources by the year 2010. In order for the EU to achieve the 12% increase in the use of renewable energy as documented on the green paper addressing the supply of Energy Security. Several regulations have been proposed and the directive has executed some of the policies some of which include. The renewable directive of the EU comprehensively addresses the alternative energy source under the directive on the promotion and electricity. The target is to produce 22 per cent of electricity from the renewable sources. The united Kingdom Government has put is own target which will be produce10% of its electricity from renewable sources by the year 2010(Ravetz 2000). The bio diversity directive which is encouraging the use of bio fuels for the transport sector indicated a target of 5.75 for the share of bio-fuels by 2010. The energy performance in buildings directive is directed at saving about 20 percent in the building and construction industry and this would be representing about 40% of the total energy consumed in the European Union region. Energy in EU Agenda and UK Participation Generally the issue of energy is a sensitive topic because every aspect of economy relies on it especially the industrialization and other technology advancements. The energy policies addressed by the EU are addressed under the following features; secure, competitive and sustainable. Another point to note is that the European Union addresses the energy policy (Williams 1996). The emergence of competitions in energy market in the United Kingdom in the 1990's and the liberalization that followed has initiated a lot of advantages to the consumers and it is very efficient. The infrastructure in the UK and the European region at large is properly integrated and genuinely open market especially the energy market for gas and electricity (Davoudi 1999). This has made the EU region very competitive and provides the conditions that are conducive for enhancing the security of supply allow effective gains and also allow growth and development of economy. The accomplishment of the second energy package for liberalization that was established in 2003 is being effected throughout the EU region. The UK government has considered its execution and enforcement the most important goal. Nonetheless, the other part of EU has encouraged competition through an energy inquiry sector where the energy and competition commissioners participate, Mcgowan (1992). Having an energy security or rather a lasting term of security of supply for the European union businesses, organisations, and the general public implies that the country or the region has a variety of sources of energy or a diversity of energy forms to select from and making use of it in the most effective means possible (Davoudi 1999). Many of the EU members are net importers off oil and gas and there is insistence of innovative strategies to make sure that security of security of supply is guaranteed. The UK headed the EU - Russia Permanent Partnership Council (PPC) as presidency during the first meeting on energy in London. This is usually comprised of ministers and the commission from UK, Austria (in coming presidency) and Russia. This coming together was intended to inspire momentum to the EU - Russia collaboration in the energy sector and market a very important part of the relationship, Mcgowan (1992). The formation of energy organisations like energy community treaty have seen the expansion of the market and the benefits of the EU single market in the energy sector to other nations of the south east Europe and hence taking intelligibility and liberalization to new clientele and this is very good for strengthening the structure of investment (Ravetz 2000). The treaty is usually treated as a unique and one of a kind as it uses the energy policy as the common denominator to bring together several nations of the region. This is a pace setter for even more cooperation in future. Energy trade is very important and as a result, the Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was established as a multilateral agreement that is focussed on providing the rules-founded mechanism to the trade, transport, and investment and hence promotes commercialized activities in the energy sector (McGowan 1993). This has also brought about efficiency in energy. Energy sustainability is an integral part of the energy policy and as a result, the UK has taken initiative to set the trend for others to follow as it secures profound changes in the manner of energy generation and consumption; setting an example to other member states of the EU. The way of energy production is cost effective, competitive and well-organized while at the same time contributing to the conservation of environment (climatic changes) targeted in the protocol of Kyoto, Mcgowan (1992). The energy use in UK is designed in a way that it will not waste any of the energy produced and people are being taught on how to conserve energy as the EU approach targets the people as the starting point to implement the directives. The UK is in the forefront to reduce the energy consumption by 20 percent by 2020 as proposed by EU. This would be very good and the most competent strategy as energy efficiency is guaranteed and this could be the greatest contributor to the success of the three main energy policies (competency, sustainability and security. The less energy lost the more cost effective a strategy is and hence energy security is established and leads to competitiveness (McGowan 1993). The Energy End Use aims at saving about 9% over a period of nine years. Conclusion Energy is a very important asset but when used in a bad way can destroy the environment and threaten survival of future generations. Precautionary principle (energy policies) should be used to conserve the very beneficial to the communities and the entire human race at large. environment especially climatic changes. Attaining the basic objectives of the EU policies would be References Davoudi S. (1999) Making Sense of the European Spatial Development Perspectives, Town and Country Planning, Vol. 68(12), Pp.367-69 Haughton G & Counsell D (2004) Regions, Spatial Strategies and Sustainable Development, Routledge, London. Lovegrove K et al (2007). Introduction to Concentrated Solar Thermal. ANU Solar Thermal Energy Research, Canberra. Http://Engnet.Anu. Petroleum Production and Exploration Lovegrove K & Dennis M (2006). Solar Thermal Energy Systems in Australia. International Journal of Environmental Studies 63 (6), 791- Former Labour Party Politician with the Same Mcgowan F & Mansell R (1992) EC Utilities - a Regime in Transition Futures, Vol 14, No1 McGowan F (1993). Western European Energy Policy in Western Europe, Europa Publication Mcgowan F (1992) Conflicting Objectives in European Energy Policy in the Politics of Political Quarterly Special Edition Pinder, D (Ed) (1998) the New Europe. Economy, Society and Environment, Wiley, Chichester Ravetz, J. (2000) City - Region 2020, Integrated Planning For A Sustainable Environment, Earthscan, and London. Williams, R.H. (1996) European Union Spatial Policy and Planning, Paul Chapman Read More