Activists to EU ministers: people want renewable energy and energy efficiency

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2014-10-07

Greenpeace volunteers delivered a message to EU ministers for energy and environment meeting in Milan. Activists from Italy, Germany, France and Austria unfurled a banner reading “people want renewables and energy efficiency” as the ministers got out of their cars to enter the meeting. All five activists have been detained by the police but not charged. The banner was a sharp reminder that only a few weeks ago hundreds of thousands of people were on the streets urging leaders to address climate change.

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Greenpeace activists unfurl a giant banner in Milan as Danish energy minister Rasmus Helveg Petersen and his European counterparts arrive for an EU meeting on energy policy

The ministers are meeting to prepare for a crucial summit of EU political leaders on 23-24 October where Europe’s energy future will be decided for decades to come.

At the summit in Brussels later this month EU leaders will decide on Europe’s efforts after 2020 to tackle climate change and clean up Europe’s energy future. They have to make the smart choice, warns Greenpeace EU energy policy adviser Tara Connolly:

“Europeans are paying a huge price for an ageing energy system which relies on imported dirty fossil fuels. If, at the summit in Brussels, the EU backs energy efficiency and renewable energy, it would be a win-win; bringing jobs, new technologies and address the urgent issue of climate change.”

It is well established that the financial, environmental and political costs of not embracing renewable and secure energy are significant, says Greenpeace. Improved energy efficiency and renewables are the only technologies able to deliver rapid cuts in fossil fuel use. Renewables are already the fastest growing power source in the EU.

Greenpeace is calling on Europe’s politicians to support binding and ambitious targets for the EU: a 45 per cent share of renewables, 40 per cent energy savings and a 55 per cent cut in domestic carbon emissions for 2030.

Source: Greenpeace EU Unit

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