Cutting CO2: French legislate, Dutch volunteer

摘要

Contrasting approaches to cutting carbon emerged late October in France and the Netherlands. A French bill, now with the Senate having passed through the National Assembly, has hiked the target for renewables in overall energy consumption by 2020 from 20% to 23%. Meanwhile seven utilities have reached a voluntary agreement in the Netherlands to hit a variety of sustainable targets by the same date.rnThe French legislation embraces energy saving, transport, buildings and the environment. Implementing the recommendations implies investing €400 billion by the end of the next decade, including major infrastructure investments to encourage use of public transport.rnIncreasing the renewables target to 23% is the result of applying the distribution in the European Commission's energy package. This implies increasing French renewables by 20 mtoe compared to the current situation. Of this 35% is to come from electricity, 49% from heat and 16% from transport. By energy type, the split is 35% of heat from biomass, 23% from wind power, 17% from biofuels, 10% from geothermal and heat pumps, 5% from biomass for power, 4% from concentrated solar, 2% from hydro power and small amounts from emerging renewables.