Legal Journals

European Union Announces Green Initiative

By mhutchins

José Manuel Barroso announced on January 23 that the EU will be pursuing a comprehensive environmental regulation strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2020. His speech, entitled “20 20 by 2020: Europe’s Climate Change Opportunity” set the goal of reducing greenhouse gases by 20% and reaching 20% usage of renewable fuels. The methods employed in achieving these goals will include a new Emissions Trading System, binding national emissions targets, and a 10% target for biofuel usage.

The cost of the plan is estimated to be less than .5% of the EU’s GDP, or about 3 Euro per citizen per week.

See the original press release here. See the BBC coverage here.

Full post as published by Harvard International Law Journal Digest on February 18, 2008 (boomark / email).