Adoption of the energy-climate package on first reading by the European Parliament

Following the agreement reached by the European Council of 11-12 December, this vote by the European Parliament – passed by a great majority – marks a historic step: the European Union is the world’s first major economy to adopt a working programme that is precise and binding in its implementation of a commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

The package adopted by the Parliament and the Council ensures the strict implementation of the unconditional commitment to reduce emissions by 20% by 2020 and to reduce them by 30% if the developed countries make a comparable commitment and the developing countries make fitting, yet precise and verifiable, commitments. The package sets out this objective precisely by sector, year and country. It also stipulates, equally precisely, how the commitment to increase the share of energy consumption from renewable energies to 20% is to be implemented, and provides a working structure for efforts in the domain of the automobile, fuel, and carbon capture and storage.

The European Union has thus proved its capacity to collectively achieve ambitious objectives on an issue that is critical for the future of the planet. The President of the European Council hopes that the other developed economies and the major emerging economies will, in turn, adopt precise objectives to be achieved by 2020, along with operational roadmaps, so that a fitting global agreement can be reached in Copenhagen.

• Updated: 30.12.2008

• Back to the top