London, 6 May 2010

The European Alliance of Energy Intensive Industries vigorously opposes any further unilateral increase of the EU climate change objectives beyond -20% by 2020. EU Commissioner Conny Hedegaard last week 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 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.

“Europe can only convince governments outside Europe, and help reducing global greenhouse gases, if it develops the necessary breakthrough technologies in Europe and if it proves that its climate change policy does not lead to cuts in domestic industrial production and jobs in basic industries”, says Moffat. “Industry needs support for this and planning reliability instead of unrealistic measures and continuous political fishtailing.”

Ends --