PROMOTION OF ELECTRICITY FROM RENEWABLE
ENERGY SOURCES
(21349)
9312/00
COM(00) 279
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Draft Council Directive on the promotion of electricity from renewable energy sources in the internal electricity market.
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| Legal base:
| Article 95 EC; co-decision; qualified majority voting
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| Department: |
Trade and Industry |
| Basis of consideration:
| Minister's letter of 22 November 2000
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| Previous Committee Report:
| HC 23-xxvi (1999-2000), paragraph 2 (26 July 2000), and HC 23-xxix (1999-2000), paragraph 3 (15 November 2000)
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| To be discussed in Council:
| 6 December 2000 |
| Committee's assessment:
| Legally and politically important
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| Committee's decision:
| Cleared |
Background
13.1 The Commission regards the promotion of
renewable sources of energy as a high Community priority, not
least because of the "substantial contribution" which
it says such measures can make towards meeting the Community's
Kyoto commitments to reduce greenhouse gases. Its November 1997
White Paper[36]
set out a Community strategy and action plan in this area, which
suggested that, in the Community as a whole, 12% of the gross
inland energy consumption should be met in this way by 2010, a
figure which, in terms of renewable energy sources for electricity
consumption alone (RES-E), is equivalent to 22.1%.
13.2 In May 2000, the Commission proposed a draft
Directive setting out ways in which this aim might be achieved.
Although it had considered setting binding RES-E[37]
targets for all Member States, it had concluded that there were
good arguments for allowing Member States to identify the strategy
best suited to their own climate change commitments, so long as
the proposed Directive was able to provide the necessary framework.
In the case of the UK, the indicative target suggested by the
Commission was 10%, compared with the Community average of 22.1%.
The proposal also dealt with a number of other issues arising
from the central aim of the Directive. These are summarised in
paragraphs 1.4-1.7 of our Report of 15 November 2000, and cover
such questions as the incentives towards RES-E use, guarantees
of origin, administrative and planning procedures, and grid connection.
13.3 Our earlier Reports noted that, in her Explanatory
Memorandum of 7 July 2000, the Minister for Energy and Competitiveness
in Europe at the Department of Trade and Industry (the Rt. Hon.
Helen Liddell) had said that the promotion of renewable energy
sources was a high priority for the Government, and that it supports
the general thrust of the proposal to promote renewables in the
single electricity market. However, this support was subject to
clarification on a number of points of concern, including the
exclusion from the Commission's definition of renewable sources
of electricity of municipal solid waste and landfill (which is
likely by 2010 to account for one-third of the UK's electricity
from renewables).
13.4 The Minister subsequently wrote to us on
18 October, saying that, as a result of discussions at official
level in Brussels, a text had emerged which, in her view, was
an improvement on the Commission's original proposal in a number
of respects. The Minister also said that she had asked her officials
to keep us informed of all new working texts of the proposal as
they emerged, and we have since received a number of such texts.
It appears from the latest of these that the definition of renewable
energy source for the purposes of this measure now includes landfill
gas and "the organic fraction of municipal waste", thus
allowing electricity from these sources to be counted towards
the UK's 10% RES-E target.
13.5 In the conclusion to our Report of 15 November
2000, we commented that it seemed that the UK's earlier concerns
had now largely been met. However, we said that, before clearing
the proposal, we needed further clarification on how significant
the restriction of the definition of renewable energy source to
the biodegradable fraction of the industrial and municipal waste
would be in terms of the UK's ability to meet its indicative target
of 10%.
Minister's letter of 22 November 2000
13.6 In her letter of 22 November 2000, the Minister
says that the restriction referred to might reduce the contribution
available from waste by one quarter to one fifth, but that this
would represent a much smaller fraction of the total 10% target,
as waste is only one of a range of sources which will contribute.
She does not consider this to be significant, particularly as
the national targets laid down in the Directive would not be mandatory.
Conclusion
13.7 We are grateful to the Minister for this
further clarification, and are now clearing the document.
36 (18762) 5140/98; HC 155-xviii (1997-98), paragraph
2 (25 February 1998) and Official Report, European Standing
Committee B, 1 April 1998. Back
37 Defined
for the purposes of this Directive as electricity generated from
renewable non-fossil fuels, and notably "wind, solar, geothermal,
wave, tidal, hydroelectric installations with a capacity below
10 MW and biomass". Biomass is defined as products from
agriculture and forestry, vegetable waste from agriculture, forestry
and the food production industry, untreated wood waste and cork
waste. Back
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