PRESIDENT PAPADOPOULOS has told the European Commission that Cyprus should be exempted from meeting renewable energy targets by 2010, citing that Cyprus, along with Malta, is a small island with limited capabilities.
As regards the goals for renewable energy sources, Cyprus believes that these should be indicative and not binding and that particularities of small and isolated energy systems without an efficient capacity of renewable energy sources should be taken into consideration.
In this respect, Cyprus supports that defining 20 per cent as the contribution of renewable energy sources to the energy balance of the community by 2020 is an ambitious goal, that should not be binding but indicative for every member state and that goals set out for each of the member states should be determined after discussions with the Commission.
As regards the 10 per cent of the consumption of fuels for transport to come from bio fuels, although it has been initially agreed that this goal will be binding for member states, Cyprus has some reservations because, as a small country, it will not have the potential to cultivate energy plants to produce energy from bio fuels.
It has also been suggested that the supply networks of the EU and those of oil and natural gas are connected.
President Papadopoulos said that countries such as Cyprus and Malta cannot be linked with these networks and that this makes it necessary for a differentiation due to the particularities of each member state.
He said that there are no large extensions in Cyprus and no energy plants or aeolian parks have been established to provide the suggested percentage of renewable energy.
If the goal of 10 per cent for the use of bio fuels is established as obligatory, the regulation for state subsidiaries should change so that member states that import fuel from biomass will be able to exempt them from import or consumer duties, or to subsidise them, without this being a state subsidiary, he added.
For these reasons, Papadopoulos suggested the conclusions of a two-day European summit on climate change that finished yesterday have a special provision/exemption for small, island member states.
Yesterday European Union leaders clinched agreement on a bold long-term strategy for energy policy and climate change aimed at leading the world in the fight against global warming.
The deal setting binding targets for slashing greenhouse gas emissions, developing renewable energy sources, promoting energy efficiency and using bio fuels laid down a challenge to the United States and other industrialised powers to follow suit.
While the 27 leaders had set binding Europe-wide objectives, setting national targets will be done with the consent of the member states. Germany added wording to win over states reliant on nuclear energy, led by France, or coal, such as Poland, and small countries with few energy resources, such as Cyprus and Malta, by adding references to the national energy mix.
“Differentiated national overall targets” for renewables should be set, “with due regard to a fair and adequate allocation taking account of different national starting points,” it said.
Despite this, Nicosia believes that renewable energy sources will contribute to the effort to protect the environment and to reduce the emission of green house gases.
“We are planning for the future and it is very important that the EU has taken the lead in this very important matter,” Papadopoulos said.
A main focus of the EU’s new energy strategy is Renewable Energy Sources (RES), an area where Cyprus falls flat, according to an EU energy report released in January.
It said that until 2005, measures that proactively supported renewable energy production, such as the New Grant Scheme, were not very ambitious. “In Cyprus, targets are not being met,” it added.
Authorities in Cyprus have committed to boost the contribution of renewables to 9.0 per cent of total energy by 2010, with the use of renewables in electricity generation to reach 6.0 per cent.
EU adopts binding targets for energy and climate page 11
