UK wants EU focus on new CO₂ cuts, not renewables

Europe should focus on cutting carbon emissions, rather than just repeating an existing range of EU green policy targets that expire at the end of the decade, Britain's energy and climate chief said on Monday. Business, which needs investment certainty, has been heaping pressure on the European Commission to come up with policy to replace goals that expire in 2020. "We should be moving towards outcome targets," Edward Davey, Britain's secretary of state for energy and climate change, told Reuters' Global Energy and Environment Summit on Monday. "Carbon emissions should be the key target." He was asked whether Britain would support another target for renewable energy once the EU goal to increase the share of green energy in the mix to 20 percent expires at the end of the decade. "While we think the renewables target for 2020 is a very good target and we believe we are on track to meet it, in terms of another renewables target, we have to think about what we are trying to achieve here," he said.