EU climate chief seeks renewable energy targets for 2030

Guardian : Connie Hedegaard, the European Union’s Commissioner for Climate Action, is seeking to extend the EU’s renewable energy targets beyond 2020. The renewable energy industry is currently facing intense pressure from lobbyists from the gas industry, who have held a series of high-level meetings with senior members of the European parliament to promote gas as a cheaper green alternative to renewables. To support their claim, the lobbyists have circulated a report by the European Gas Advocacy Forum (EGAF) that appears to show that Europe could meet its 2050 greenhouse gas targets and save €900 billion by using gas instead of renewable energy sources. However, the report was adapted from a previous study that contradicts the claim, and the original study’s coauthors, the European Climate Foundation, have disowned the EGAF report.