The European Alliance of Energy Intensive Industries has vigorously opposed any further unilateral increase of the EU climate change objectives beyond -20% by 2020. EU Commissioner Conny Hedegaard announced that a draft Commission assessment showed that the move was technically feasible and economically affordable. She justified this, inter alia, with the economic crisis that would have made a more ambitious target cheaper than calculated previously. “The announcement is against the EU’s own commitment to move to -30% only in case that other regions agree to comparable cuts in emissions. It is against the basic principles of the European Emissions Trading System and it is impossible for the manufacturing industry to achieve a -30% target by 2020 without cuts in production and significant losses of jobs”, counters Gordon Moffat, EUROFER’s director general. The announcement would therefore also further undermine the EU’s position as a driving force in international climate change negotiations.
