It is not enough to rely on Kyoto alone to combat climate change, says Energy Commissioner Loyola de Palacio. At a conference addressing industry representatives, NGOs and media on 28 September 2004, the Commissioner emphasised that "Kyoto is a way, not the goal. The challenge of combatting climate change is much more far reaching".
Nuclear energy remains the only option to cut down on emissions, maintains De Palacio: "In the foreseeable future, we need nuclear power to keep emissions down." Pressed by NGO representatives on nuclear safety and nuclear waste, she said that "there are risks, but they are calculable. There is no other option".
A second priority for De Palacio is to reach the EU's target to increase the share of renewable energy to 12 per cent by 2010. While most Member States are still lagging behind in reaching their individual targets, the commissioner estimates that the implementation of the biofuels directive will improve the situation by six per cent.
Saying that Europe could not take on the challenge of climate change alone, De Palacio called upon the US to improve its record. "The US is not making any efforts in improving energy efficiency, although there is a huge potential," she said. In the EU, the energy efficiency directive is currently being discussed by the Council and the Parliament.
An area in which the US does excel, though, is research into new technologies such as carbon sequestration and hydrogen. "There is much more investment into energy research across the Atlantic than in the EU," she explained, saying that this should be a priority for the EU in the coming years.
Elissa P. Sterry from ExxonMobil pointed to the growing global energy demand, which is expected to increase by more than 50 per cent by 2030. "For the foreseeable future, fossil fuels are the only forms of energy having the scale and versatility to address the world's energy demand challenge," she told the conference. According to her, "oil and gas will remain the dominant sources", while "nuclear power's share [..] will fall by ten per cent in Europe".
Sceptical about the future of renewable energy, ExxonMobil estimates that renewables will only contribute around six per cent of Europe's total requirements by 2030.
