18-19 July Informal Environment Council

THE need to increase the EU's use of renewable energy sources was the main topic for discussion at the talks. Ministers agreed that renewables offered greater diversity, and therefore security for the Union's energy supplies, reduced pollution, created jobs, were more 'cost transparent' than fossil fuels and would help the EU to reduce its overall emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide (CO2). On the CO2 question, ministers also pointed out that renewables had a key role to play in helping the Union to meet its pledges to reduce production of greenhouse gases, made at last December's climate change talks in Kyoto.