Report: Europe could halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. EXCLUSIVE / By 2030, Europe could be generating more than 40% of its energy from renewables, using 38% less energy than in 2005 and emitting 50% less greenhouse gases than it did in 1990, a new WWF report shows.
“Achieving such levels would put the EU on track to deliver a 100% renewably powered energy system by 2050 at the latest,” says the report, Re-energising Europe, prepared for WWF by the Ecofys consultancy. The European Commission will soon begin an orientation debate about 2030 climate targets, in advance of a public consultation (Green Paper) later this spring and a follow-up policy paper (Communication) due by the end of the year. But Jason Anderson, WWF’s head of EU climate and energy policy, said that such measures were unlikely to be successful in the absence of legal recourse. “Time and again, indicative targets and voluntary agreements have failed and been replaced by binding targets,” he told EurActiv. Energy savings. Fleischlos glücklich? While Western scientists are well used to developing ideas with an eye on the market, this mindset is largely absent among Russians brought up in the Soviet Union, and even among some young scientists.
However, with the skills and knowledge of Russian scientists and technologists increasingly in demand, they are now becoming quite a commodity. Tech transfer agencies – organisations that link innovators with businesses that need their ideas and products – are cashing in on Russians’ scientific expertise. Earthrise. Effiziente Energieproduktion.