'Major effort' needed to update energy infrastructure

REACTIONS

“Despite its grandiose billing, this summit has left EU energy policy at a standstill,” said Rebecca Harms, a German Green MEP. “We urgently need to upgrade our energy infrastructure and this will require new and innovative sources of financing. We regret that EU leaders have failed to grasp the nettle on this key issue.”

Noting that many European governments are having to tighten their belts, Jorgo Chatzimarkakis, a German Liberal MEP, said: “New infrastructures should not solely be financed via subsidies. We need to have the right mix of loans and merge them with existing subsidies – this is how we create innovative forms of financing for large infrastructure projects.”

The Council added “next to nothing” to existing commitments on energy-efficiency, said Amanda Afifi, the secretary-general of the European Alliance for Companies for Energy Efficiency in Buildings (EuroACE). “What we need is a major retro-fitting programme for all buildings across the EU. This would bring huge energy savings and would kick-start our economies, generating millions of new jobs.”

Darek Urbaniak at Friends of the Earth Europe said: “The European Union's decision to assess the potential of unconventional fossil fuel sources within Europe, notably shale gas, is the wrong way to address import dependency. Shale gas poses unacceptable risks to the local environment and will lock us in to the continued use of fossil fuels.”