---
Sent From Bloomberg Mobile MSG
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
U.K.'s Huhne Says EU Should Halt Fossil-Economy Protections
2010-10-04 15:24:55.253 GMT
By Mathew Carr
Oct. 4 (Bloomberg) -- Chris Huhne, the U.K. secretary of
state for energy and climate change, said east European nations
should stop protecting their traditional fossil-fuel industries
and embrace a stricter emissions target for 2020.
"We want to inject a bit of real ambition in the European
Union," Huhne said today at the Carbon Show in London. "We
won't build a new economy by protecting businesses that are on
the way out."
The 27-nation bloc may adopt a 30 percent emissions-
reduction target for 2020 from 1990 levels instead of its
current 20 percent goal. The EU is setting rules for the third
phase of its carbon market, the world's largest, which runs for
the eight years through 2020.
Polish Environment Minister Andrzej Kraszewski said last
month any unilateral move by the European Union to a deeper
emission-reduction target would be "counter-productive."
The EU will convince east European nations to adopt the
stricter limit, Huhne said, citing the EU's influence in
Russia's 2004 ratification of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, against
the wishes of the then U.S. government of George Bush.
For Related News and Information:
European power-market stories TNI EUROPE PWRMARKET <GO>
Today's top power news PTOP <GO> and energy news ETOP <GO>
European electricity-markets home page EPWR <GO>
German power-plant shutdown news TNI GER VOLTOUT <GO>
Emissions-trading stories NI ENVMARKET <GO>
--Editor: Mike Anderson.
To contact the reporters on this story:
Mathew Carr in London at +44-20-7073-3531 or
m.carr@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story:
Stephen Voss at +44-20-7073-3520 or sev@bloomberg.net
