Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2013-05-20-Speech-1-047-000"
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"en.20130520.16.1-047-000"2
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"Mr President, EU policy on renewables is a success story. In the current doom and gloom, it is worth simply pointing that out. The overall target of 20% by 2020 is currently on track, and the renewables sector has continued to grow during the recession, on average at 6% per year.
In the UK, green industries overall contributed more than a third of all growth last year and have created almost a million jobs. Growth has brought significant cost reductions in renewable technology, especially for onshore wind and PV (photovoltaics). Contrast this with the sharply rising price of gas, especially imported gas. We need to remember that it is the rise in gas prices that is responsible for two thirds of the increase that people see on their household energy bills.
Where there have been problems with renewables is where feed-in tariff support has become a victim of its own success and governments have failed to intervene soon enough to stop a bubble developing. So I am glad that the Commission is due to issue guidance on support schemes, which need to be flexible and appropriate for the different levels of maturity of different technologies.
But the fact remains that, unlike the emissions-trading scheme, and unlike carbon capture and storage, the renewables part of the climate package is on track. It would be madness, in my view, to undermine that success, but undermine it we will if we do not put in place – soon – a 2030 target for renewables.
Without a post-2020 framework, growth is expected to slump from 6% currently down to 1%. Think of what that would mean in terms of jobs, not just directly, but also in infrastructure and support industries.
Just one example – from one small town in my constituency, Blyth. The port of Blyth in Northumberland plans to double its capacity because of the expanding renewables sector, creating an extra 500 jobs. Some people have argued that we should just have one target for 2020 – a greenhouse gas target – and just leave the market to do the rest. Maybe the market would deliver eventually, but with the carbon price at around EUR 3, the market is certainly not incentivising any low-carbon investment at the moment.
Renewables policy is the golden goose that is actually delivering real CO
reductions as well as the precious eggs of jobs and growth, so do not kill it. Let us support an ambitious renewables target for 2030."@en1
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