Green group finds new EU members guzzling energy at double the rate

By Anna McLauchlin

Date: 30/09/04

THE EU's new member states consume roughly twice the amount of energy in relative terms as do the old member states, according to a report from the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF).

And if action is not taken they will continue to do so for the next 25 years.

"By 2030, newly accessed countries, in the absence of specifically targeted policy measures, will still have twice the energy intensity of the EU-15," the WWF said.

One of the biggest problems, according to the report, which will be published this week, is a lack of governmental priority on energy saving as a result of accession.

"Conservative estimates suggest that 30% of energy can be saved economically, even considering the region's lower energy prices," it says.

But the accession process has "focused mainly on market liberalization, with insufficient attention given to environmental and energy demand implications of energy market reform".

This focus means that member states have implemented "simply insufficient" energy policies through a lack of designated funds and staffing levels.

For example, in central Europe, there are at most nine staff per million of the population working in energy offices, while in the Netherlands there are 31 staff to every million inhabitants.

The organization also warns that as the new member states liberalize their energy markets, they risk increasing "commercial offers for cheaper or even free electricity" which will push consumption up further.

WWF asks the new member states to introduce tax cuts and financial advantages to reduce environmentally damaging energy systems such as electrical heating.

But the report also says that the European Commission needs to produce more ambitious policies on energy efficiency. It highlights a new proposal known as the 'Energy Services Directive', which calls on member states to reduce energy demand by 1% in 2006-12.

This target is so low, the organization claims, that it could discourage new member states from reaching their nationally fixed goals.

Hungary, for example, has already set itself a target of reducing energy consumption in 15 sectors by 7-8% by 2010 and the Czech Republic is aiming for an annual decrease in the amount of energy consumed relative to gross domestic product (GDP) of 3-3.5%.

An official from the Czech ministry of industry and trade challenged the findings of the WWF's report, which claims that the Czech Republic is using five times the energy the EU-15 would use for each US dollar of GDP.

"Talking about GDP is very misleading when the value of our currencies is so different," he told European Voice.

"Energy efficiency in the Czech Republic has already increased by 1% every year for the last two decades and we are well within European Union targets."

Preview of a World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) Report on energy consumption per head which is found to be roughly at double the rate in the new EU Member States compared to the EU-15.

WWF: International website http://www.panda.org/

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