Guest post by Omar Abbosh
Europe has long been in the vanguard of the world’s response to climate change, as its 20/20/20 targets demonstrate. But as we head towards December’s Copenhagen climate talks, it is clear that Europe is not only failing to meet its own targets, but that its failure to introduce a true single energy market is undermining its ambitions to lead the post-Kyoto world.
Europe must generate well over 30 per cent of its electricity from renewables to meet its 2020 goals. That is more than triple today’s levels. Judging from the investment plans of Europe’s largest energy companies, we will undershoot that target by 40 per cent.
In a perfect single energy market, renewables investment should gravitate to the most cost effective locations, where most power can be generated at the lowest cost and with the least need for ‘base load’ back up from conventional fuel sources. These locations are where the sources are in greatest abundance. Solar power would be concentrated in the Mediterranean and wind would be turning more turbines in the UK than anywhere else.
