An energy policy for Europe in face of climate change

Abstract

Energy and climate change have climbed their way to the top of the European Union's agenda. A blend of inter-related problems ranging from rising energy demands to the sharp increases in energy prices, the Union's growing dependence on imported gas and oil and growing anxieties on climate change and global warming, has forced the EU-27 to work on a common EU energy policy to tackle these pressing problems, which if unaddressed, might well jeopardise the future existence of the Union and its Member States. This thesis will focus on how the EU, through a revamped energy policy, is fighting climate change and will examine above all whether it is doing too much or too little on this problem. The first chapter is a historic account of the EU's energy and environment-related initiatives since its foundation up till the signing of the Kyoto Protocol. The following chapters give an overview of the current state of energy and climate change and after that we analyse what the EU is doing now to fight this problem through a set of energy-related measures. The thesis then asks whether the EU is doing too much or too little on climate change and whether the answer is based on economic rationale. Towards the end, we also see how this debate translates to Malta. The main proposal in the recently adopted energy and climate change package revolves around the target of cutting EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 compared with 1990 levels - and more if an international agreement on the need for action by all industrial countries is reached. This is what Commission President José Manuel Barroso termed as the new industrial revolution. But to achieve this target, much has to be done. Whatsoever, the package puts combating climate change at the heart of a new EU Energy Policy for Europe.