-------------------------
Denmark to slash environment spending
Environment Daily 1147, 30/01/02
-------------------------
Large-scale cuts in Danish spending on environmental policy making and
third world aid were confirmed yesterday in a draft 2002 budget
unveiled by the government. The supplementary proposal follows the
victory of centre-right parties in elections last November.
The government is aiming to find an extra DKr7bn (euros 943m) to pay
for improvements in hospitals and elderly care and to introduce
one-year maternity leave and new tax breaks for business. To pay for
this, it is proposing major expenditure cuts across all ministries in
subsidies, foreign aid and advisory boards and councils, including many
working on environmental issues
Denmark's environmental administration is to be particularly hard hit.
Compared with an overall cut across the civil service of one in 25
positions, one in seven will go at the environment ministry (420 out of
around 3,000), including one in five at the Danish environmental
protection agency (90 of 450), and one in three at the national energy
agency (70 of 230).
"We are not dismissing staff in the environmental ministry because
they have been poor workers, but because we think the money is better
put to use in other areas," environmental minister Hans Christian
Schmidt told national newspaper Berlingske Tidende.
"We're doing what people have wanted for many years in Danish
politics. We have the desire and the will to judge how we will use
taxpayers' money in the best way possible," said finance minister Thor
Pedersen.
Meanwhile, Denmark's generous environmental foreign aid programme is
to be slashed in half, bringing cries of "massacre" from environmental
groups. Kim Carstensen, head of the Danish branch of WWF, predicted
that shock waves would be felt at this August's UN sustainability
summit in Johannesburg, when Denmark will be leading the EU delegation.
"It's difficult to appear as a pioneer when you have just halved your
contribution," he said.
.
Europe set for years of wet winters - scientists
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
UK: January 31, 2002
LONDON - The forecast for central and northern Europe is for more extremely
wet winters over the next 100 years, scientists predicted yesterday.
Thanks to global warming and rising levels of carbon dioxide (CO2), the torrential
rains, severe storms and record rainfall seen during the autumn and winter in
England and Wales in 2000/2001 could be an indication of things to come, they
said.
"Over the UK and much of Europe, a (very wet) winter that maybe would have
occurred once every 50 years in the 20th century is likely to occur in Europe
once every eight years, assuming CO2 doubles," said Tim Palmer of the European
Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecast based in Reading, England.
"The probability of this type of very wet winter will increase from roughly two percent to about 12 percent."
Palmer and Jouni Raisanen of the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute in Norrkoping based their findings on an analysis of 19 global climate models.
Their predictions were reported in the science journal Nature as severe storms and strong winds were blamed for killing at least 10 people across northern Europe earlier this week.
In addition to Europe's more frequent severe winters, the scientists believe very wet Asian summer monsoons are also likely to occur more often, increasing the possibility of flooding, particularly in Bangladesh.
Palmer said increased levels of CO2 were the only factor that could account for the predicted change in extreme weather.
Co2, released when burning fossil fuels, is one of the major so-called greenhouse gases which scientists blame for global warming.
In a separate report in Nature, Christopher Milly and his colleagues at the U.S. Geological Survey in Princeton, New Jersey, warned of the possibility of more great floods in very large river basins around the globe over the next 100 years.
"We find that the frequency of great floods increased substantially during the 20th century," they said in the report, adding that the trend was likely to continue.
Reiner Schnur, of Germany's Max Planck Institute for Meteorology in Hamburg, said the two studies increased confidence in projected changes in extreme rainfall and flooding but more reliable estimates were needed.
"Much larger ensembles are needed for more reliable estimates of extreme events, particularly for very rare events that have a great potential for a disastrous impact on a country's economy and inhabitants," he said in a commentary.
Story by Patricia Reaney
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
-------------------------
Germany aims for one-quarter windpower by 2030
Environment Daily 1146, 29/01/02
-------------------------
The German government today announced plans for a massive increase in
wind generation capacity over the next 25 years. The move, according
to environment minister Jürgen Trittin would put energy supply and
sustainable footing and reduce national carbon dioxide emissions by 10%
from 1998 levels.
The wind energy strategy agreed today foresees offshore wind parks in
the Baltic and the North Sea growing in stages to achieve 20-25,000
megawatts of installed capacity by 2030. The turbines would supply 15%
of electricity demand based on 1998 figures. Add 10% from land-based
turbines and "within a generation... one quarter of today's energy
needs will be generated with environmentally-friendly wind power", said
Mr Trittin.
He added that wind power already provided an additional 35,000 jobs
and that: "the wind power sector is to become a self-supporting
industry, something the nuclear sector has never achieved".
The Green minister has been charged with the task by his ministerial
colleagues of coming up with a strategy for solving the existing
conservation and land-use conflicts which surround the development of
offshore wind parks as well as speeding up the planning system so
construction can start.
According to a news agency report from Germany this afternoon, over 60
firms have already expressed an interest in permits to build wind
turbines offshore.
-------------------------
German parliament approves CHP support
Environment Daily, 28/01/02
-------------------------
Germany's parliament on Friday approved a significant new support
package for combined heat and power (CHP), ending months of discord
within the governing coalition. Up to euros 4.5bn will be on offer up
to 2010 for selling CHP electricity to the grid and constructing new
power stations. The law takes effect on 1 March.
The new rules build on emergency support introduced two years ago for
municipally owned CHP plants. These were coming under increasing
pressure from falling power prices in a newly liberalised electricity
market and many were being closed.
Having stabilised the market, the government wanted to ensure an
increasing share of CHP-produced electricity, aiming at lowering carbon
dioxide emissions by 23m tonnes per year by 2010. Legal targets, or
quotas, for new CHP capacity were initially the preferred mechanism,
but were dropped following opposition from economics minister Werner
Müller and big power firms, which successfully promoted an alternative
voluntary agreement
As finally agreed, the law offers CHP plant operators supplying
electricity to the grid fixed prices above the market rate for up to
ten years. Modernised plants built before December 2005 will benefit
up to 2010, and any plant built before 1990 to 2009. Those built
before 1990, which are generally less efficient, will be eligible only
to 2006.
Having lost their campaign for a significantly longer period of price
support, the co-governing Greens have won instead a review in 2004,
which will assess whether the extra money being channelled into CHP is
in practice leading to an expansion of the sector.
European cogeneration industry association Cogen Europe welcomed the
law's approval as a rare sign of tangible support for CHP by a European
government, four years after an EU-wide target was set to double the
sector's size by 2010
German environmentalists were less reassured. The rules would fail to
realise the full potential of CHP, said Friends of the Earth Germany
(Bund), because support was only being made available to established
power suppliers. A legal quota system like the proposal defeated last
year remained the right way forward, said the group.
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-------------------------
MEPs green up draft EU purchasing law
Environment Daily, 21/01/02
-------------------------
MEPs have approved significant changes to draft EU rules for public
procurement that environmentalists say will enable public authorities
to give much stronger support to greener products. At its plenary
meeting in Strasbourg last week, the European parliament widened the
criteria that authorities must consider when awarding contracts for
goods and services.
Under the wording proposed by the European Commission, authorities
would have to choose the tender that is most "economically
advantageous" to them
In the subtle change introduced by parliament, they would be able to
interpret this requirement more broadly to choose the most economically
advantageous option for society at large. According to experts, this
opens the way for external costs of products to be factored into
economic calculations.
In a second change, MEPs left open the option of assessing the
production processes used, as well as the products themselves, when
awarding contracts for products. . Environmental groups say a
restriction to finished products alone is a key flaw in the current EU
procurement rules
The directive will now pass to EU governments for a first ministerial
reading, following which it will return to the parliament. If
ministers block the change, however, MEPs could have problems
reinstating it. The parliament's largest grouping, the EPP, withdrew
its support at the last minute, and its backing is usually vital during
the second reading, when motions require an absolute rather than simple
majority to be passed.
MEPs backing wider use of green procurement in the public sector -
responsible for spending 14% of the EU's GDP - have hailed parliament's
vote as a "major step". Heidi Hautala of the Green party said it would
"push the economy towards green products and environmentally and
socially sustainable production methods".
Follow-up: parliamentary news report
http://www2.europarl.eu.int/omk/OM-Europarl?PROG=PRESS-DAILYNB&L=EN&PUBREF=-//EP//TEXT+PRESS-DAILYNB+DN-20020117-1+0+DOC+SGML+V0//EN&LEVEL=2&NAV=S
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Ms Joke Waller-Hunter appointed UNFCCC Executive Secretary
The Secretary-General has appointed Joke Waller-Hunter of the Netherlands as Executive Secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change to succeed Michael Zammit Cutajar who retires on 31 January 2002. The appointment has been made after consultations with the Conference of Parties through its Bureau at a meeting held on 17 January 2002.
Joke Waller-Hunter is currently the Environment Director of the Organization
for Economic Development and Cooperation. She has previously worked as the Director
of the UN Division for Sustainable Development that provides the substantive
secretariat support to the UN Commission on Sustainable Development. She has
also worked with the Dutch government in the earlier years of her career.
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Dates and places of COP 8 and SB16
First sessional period in 2002
3 - 14 June 2002
Bonn, Germany
SBSTA: Wednesday, 5 June to Friday, 14 June
SBI: Monday, 10 June to Friday, 14 June
Pre-sessional and informal meetings, as well as some workshops, may also be
scheduled in this period.
Second sessional period in 2002, including UNFCCC COP 8
23 October - 1 November
New Delhi, India
-------------------------
Finland bucks the trend on nuclear power
Environment Daily, 17/01/02
-------------------------
The Finnish cabinet breathed new life into Europe's nuclear industry
today, voting ten to six in favour of constructing a fifth nuclear
power plant. A parliamentary vote, due this spring, is needed to
ratify the decision. Strong opposition is anticipated, including from
elements of the government's five-party coalition, which includes the
green party.
The government's decision marks a dramatic departure from the current
trend in Europe. No new nuclear capacity has come into operation for
decades and national governments, including Belgium, Sweden and
Germany, have active plans to phase out all existing reactors.
Environmentalists are keeping up the pressure, painting nuclear as an
outdated and unsustainable industry.
According to the Finnish government, however, more nuclear power is
the most cost-effective option "for central government finances and the
national economy". It will also help to stabilise electricity prices
against a picture of rising demand and limited scope for boosting
hydropower, and enable Finland to replace current coal-fired power
stations and so reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
Following today's decision, Finnish industry minister Sinikka Mönkäre
stressed that the government was not interested solely in nuclear
power. Great efforts were being made to support growth in renewable
energy and to promote energy conservation, Ms Mönkäre told
journalists.
Europe's nuclear industry association Foratom strongly welcomed the
announcement. The decision "will hopefully serve as a reminder to EU
policy-makers that a fully diversified energy mix is really the only
way forward," said its secretary general. "That means using all our
available options, without making any exclusions for purely political
reasons."
But NGO Greenpeace slammed the decision, reiterating a threat to hit
the project's industrial backers, which include UPM-Kymmene, Stora
Enso, Metsä Serla and Fortum. "Products of the Finnish
telecommunications and paper industries are darkened by the nuclear
shadow, said Tobias Muenchmeyer. "It is our duty to make people in
Germany and other EU countries aware of this fact".
Meanwhile, the Finnish cabinet also agreed "in principle" on the
the
method of storing spent nuclear fuel from the new plant. Parliamentary
ratification is needed for this decision, too. Finland's first
permanent storage facility, to be located on the country's west coast,
is due to begin operating in about 2020 (ED 21/05/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=9943).
Follow-up: Greenpeace
http://www.greenpeace.se/templates/template_25.asp?lang=19
-------------------------
Barcelona EU summit agenda takes shape
Environment Daily, 16/01/02
-------------------------
The European Commission today set out its priorities for talks between
EU leaders at the spring European council in Barcelona in mid-March.
The summit will provide the first progress assessment for, and chart
the future of, the EU's sustainable development strategy, but
environmental issues are unlikely to feature highly on the overall
agenda.
At last June's Gothenburg council, heads of government adopted a pared
down version of a Commission-proposed sustainability strategy .
This was heavily slanted towards environmental issues in order to add
a third, green pillar to the pre-existing "Lisbon process" - a
programme of mainly economic but also social reforms set in train in
2000.
Today's Commission "synthesis report" and the Spanish presidency's
proposed priorities for the Barcelona summit agenda reinforce fears
that environmental issues have been an afterthought bolted on to the
drive for a more dynamic and competitive European economy.
Leaders' attention, the Commission says, should be focussed on three
areas: labour market reform, advancing the integration of financial
markets and "network industries" such as telecoms, and increasing
investment in knowledge-based sectors. Spain says it will aim to
unblock disputes over the liberalisation of energy markets and the
development of trans-European transport networks.
The sole item of direct environmental relevance will be the role of
"clean technologies" in reducing pollution and driving economic growth
and employment. The Commission is soon to produce a report on this
theme and will then draft an action plan on removing barriers to
take-up.
A separate agenda item on promoting biotechnology may provoke
discussion on the EU's gene crop approvals moratorium.
But the Cardiff process on integrating environmental concerns into
mainstream policy areas, which was due to be reviewed at Barcelona,
receives no mention in the Commission report.
In an appendix, the Commission assesses progress of individual policy
dossiers under the Lisbon process - such as the proposal for an EU
emissions trading system and directives on biofuels and buildings
energy efficiency - and highlights imminent initiatives, including a
proposed framework directive on transport pricing.
A statistical annex lists a series of structural indicators tracking
progress in the sustainability strategy's four priority areas. This
shows that greenhouse gas emissions and energy intensity of the economy
are declining, but that progress in these areas is slowing. Meanwhile
exposure to ozone and particulate pollution is increasing, waste levels
are rising, and the EU is "moving away from a transport system that is
efficient, effective and sustainable" .
Follow-up:
Eurostat structural indicator site
http://europa.eu.int/comm/eurostat/Public/datashop/print-product/EN?catalogue=Eurostat&product=1-structur-EN&mode=download.
-------------------------
Dutch warned over national CO2 trading costs
Environment Daily, 15/01/02
-------------------------
An influential Dutch economic policy consultancy today warned against
launching a national carbon dioxide (CO2) emission trading scheme,
arguing that it would be too expensive. The government is considering
following in the footsteps of countries that have taken this step, like
the UK and Denmark, but has yet to make a decision.
The Netherlands bureau for economic policy (CPB) was commissioned to
look at the cost implications of different CO2 quota trading systems as
well as existing regulatory and tax policies aimed at curbing
emissions.
It concludes that the best option would be for the Netherlands to
participate in the international trading scheme based on absolute CO2
ceilings. A trading system is due to operate under the UN Kyoto
protocol from 2008, but CPB acknowledges that considerable uncertainty
continues to hang over the project.
The second best option could be to participate in an EU-wide system
due to be launched in 2005 under proposals issued last year by the
European Commission, the CPB's Machiel Mulder told Environment Daily.
Least cost-effective would be for the Netherlands to launch its own
scheme because of predicted high transaction costs, the body advises.
It suggests that "improving the design" of the Netherlands' existing
energy tax system could be an "attractive alternative" to national
trading.
Follow-up: report
http://www.cpb.nl/nl/pub/document/18/doc18.pdf
with English abstract on
p.71.
Streets abandoned, metro packed in Italy car ban
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ITALY: January 15, 2002
MILAN - Four million people swapped cars for alternative transport in Italy's
Lombardy region the weekend during a 12-hour ban on private vehicles to ease
soaring pollution levels.
The streets of Italy's financial hub of Milan were deserted during the first
ban of 2002 as residents crammed into the metro and train systems and in some
cases hit the streets on foot and by bicycle.
More than a month of blue skies in often rainy and foggy northern Italy has
pushed pollution to a critical level. In some areas, no rain has fallen in 80
days.
In Milan, the ban did little to reduce the thick grey-brown pollution haze which stretched all the way to the mountains in the north, but the metro was as busy as rush-hour on a work day.
"The car ban doesn't solve anything in the long term, it might clear the air for one day, but pollution will come right back the next," said one commuter, 35-year-old David Massironi. "The only solution is to really improve public transport."
High pollution levels across Italy due to the unseasonably dry weather also prompted shorter car bans in other big cities like Turin and Florence.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
-------------------------
Battle resumes over Luxembourg power plant
Environment Daily, 14/01/02
-------------------------
A legal battle over a 350MW gas-fired power station in Luxembourg is
to resume after Greenpeace today announced that it is appealing against
a court decision, issued last December, to allow the Esch-sur-Alzette
plant to continue to operate.
The long-running dispute concerns whether the power station can be
considered to use best available techniques (BAT) to limit pollution if
it does not make use of heat as well as electricity in order to boost
overall efficiency. The court ruled that it can, though it noted that
this was not a "completely rational" use of the plant's potential.
In its appeal, Greenpeace argues that the court took too narrow a
view. The EU's 1996 integrated pollution prevention and control (IPPC)
directive demands the use of the BAT to achieve a high level of
environmental protection. Greenpeace claims that only cogeneration
power stations can provide this.
The group also argues that the Luxembourg government is in breach of
its legal commitment under the 1992 UN climate change convention if it
allows the power station to produce electricity only, so missing a
potential 16% saving in carbon dioxide emissions possible if heat is
also exploited.
The Esch-sur-Alzette plant began test operations in December.
Greenpeace has fought every step of its development, calling instead
for construction of several smaller cogeneration plants close to major
customers for heat
Follow-up: Greenpeace Luxembourg
http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/greenpea/home.htm,
and
power station campaign pages
http://webplaza.pt.lu/public/greenpea/kampagnen/klima/gud/gud-intro.html.
Ireland to build world's largest wind farm
REPUBLIC OF IRELAND: January 14, 2002
DUBLIN - Ireland last week approved a 640 million euro (395 million pounds)
plan to build the world's largest offshore wind farm, capable of generating
520 megawatts of electricity.
Marine and Natural Resources Minister Frank Fahey said the wind farm, in the
Irish Sea off County Wicklow on Ireland's east coast, would be three times the
size of all the existing wind farms in the world put together.
"Today heralds the dawning of a new age of clean, green energy, harvested
from two plentiful renewable sources, the sea and the wind," said Fahey
at a Foreshore Lease signing ceremony in Dublin.
The facility, to be built on a sandbank by a private Irish company called Eirtricity, should supply about 10 percent of the country's energy needs, the minister said.
"I am particularly pleased that this project, the most ambitious offshore wind energy development ever undertaken, is being undertaken by a dynamic Irish company who have already established a track record in renewable energy projects."
Fahey also said the station, about four miles offshore at its nearest point, should reduce Ireland's emissions of harmful carbon dioxide gas by 13.5 million tonnes a year.
Eirtricity hopes to begin construction work in the Spring, with the first phase of the project, generating 60 megawatts, going into operation in the Autumn.
When finished the wind farm will be made up of 200 giant turbines sunk into the 27-kilometre long Arklow Sandbank.
Eirtricity is headed by Eddie O'Connor, former boss of the state-sponsored Bord Na Mona peat-producing company. The company is 51 percent owned by Ireland's National Toll Roads, with the balance controlled by a consortium of investors including O'Connor.
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE
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-------------------------
Commission clears Danish energy tax break
Environment Daily, 10/01/02
-------------------------
The European Commission has recommended EU approval under the 1992
mineral oils directive for a Danish request to lower ecotax rates on
heavy fuel oil and heating oil used by energy-intensive businesses.
Denmark applied to introduce the lower rate - which will cuts taxes by
22% for 60 to 80 business - after realising that some firms were paying
more than envisaged when a tax on energy to produce heating and hot
water was introduced in 1998. Businesses will have to improve energy
efficiency to qualify for the reduced rate. See proposal
http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/en/com/pdf/2001/com2001_0809en01.pdf.
-------------------------
EEA charts course for precautionary principle
Environment Daily, 10/01/02
-------------------------
Wise use of the precautionary principle will only be possible if
politicians and regulatory authorities heed the lessons of key
twentieth century environmental and public health failures, concludes a
report published today by the European environment agency (EEA).
The report reviews 14 instances in which scientific uncertainty or
unexpected developments contributed to serious environmental or human
health threats. It draws 12 lessons on how precaution should be
invoked in future without unduly stifling innovation.
The report accepts that applying the precautionary principle will
always be "intrinsically difficult," but argues that the costs,
including financial, of failing to practise precaution can be huge.
A key need is for acknowledgement of scientific ignorance as well as
uncertainty and risk, the report says. Citing decades of ignorance to
the "very possibility" of a hole in the earth's stratospheric ozone
layer, the report calls for a "humble" approach. Risk appraisals
should allow for ignorance, for example through an understanding that
certain actions may be irreversible.
Linked to this, governments should seek out and reduce blind spots and
gaps in scientific knowledge, the report concludes. They should also
battle against obstacles to knowledge sharing across disciplines and
combat institutional obstacles to action.
History also demonstrates the necessity of adequate, long-term
monitoring and research into environmental and human health, the report
says. Experience with asbestos, benzene and PCBs underline the need
not to equate "no evidence of harm" with "evidence of no harm,"
it
notes.
The report also stresses that society can become vulnerable when
markets are dominated by single technologies or products, such as was
the case with CFCs in the 1980s. Governments should systematically
promote development of alternative options, it says, which would also
encourage innovation and associated economic growth.
Other lessons include the importance of maintaining regulatory
independence and incorporating "lay" knowledge on real world impacts
of
technologies and substances. Authorities also need to "systematically
scrutinise" the claimed benefits for specific technologies and
products, it says.
Maintaining societal values at the heart of decision making can also
help to decide when to take precautionary action, the report concludes.
It cites the considerable public "revulsion" in the UK at the news
in
the late 1980s that ruminants were being fed livestock waste.
Fourteen case studies are included in the report, looking at:
collapse of key North American fish stocks; ionising radiation;
benzene; asbestos; PCBs; halocarbons and the ozone layer; authorisation
of diethylstilboestrol use by pregnant women; agriculture's use of
antimicrobials for growth promotion; sulphur dioxide emissions;
promotion of MTBE as a lead substitute in petrol; chemical
contamination of the Great Lakes; tributyltin antifoulants; hormones
used for growth promotion; and BSE.
Follow-up: EEA report
http://reports.eea.eu.int/environmental_issue_report_2001_22/en.
-------------------------
Dutch cut cost of climate-friendly cars
Environment Daily, 07/01/02
-------------------------
The Dutch government is rewarding consumers with up to euros 1,000 if
they buy a low carbon dioxide-emitting car, under a scheme launched on
1 January.
Under the scheme, buyers of B-rated vehicles will receive euros 500;
buyers of A-rated ones euros 1,000. This is believed to be the first
such incentive offered to encourage purchases of more climate-friendly
vehicles.
All EU member states are required to label new cars according to their
fuel efficiency and carbon dioxide emissions under a 1999 directive and
the Netherlands has had rules in place for some time.
Along with some other countries, the Dutch labelling system works in
the same way as the A-G scheme for household appliances in operation
across Europe. This enables consumers to compare vehicles of the same
size against each other and means that larger vehicles can potentially
win an A rating as well as smaller ones.
Follow-up: Dutch environment ministry http://www.minvrom.nl/,
and press release
http://www.minvrom.nl/minvrom/pagina.html?id=6211.
-------------------------
France unveils housing efficiency strategy
Environment Daily, 07/01/02
-------------------------
A national sustainable development strategy for France's housing
sector was approved by the government last week. Top of the strategy's
agenda is improving the energy efficiency of homes, particularly
existing housing stock. This has largely been left out of previous
energy efficiency measures.
The plan does not include thermal efficiency targets for existing
houses even though these exist for new homes and public buildings,
on the grounds that such a standard is being dealt with at EU level.
Instead, national energy agency Ademe will negotiate with local
authorities on regional targets for cuts in housing-related carbon
emissions.
>From this year a 15% tax break will apply to the sale of insulation
materials, heating regulation equipment and insulated windows. Grants
for renovations are to be increasingly targeted towards energy
efficiency. Eventually, 70% of houses receiving public funds for
renovation will be required to use some of the money to improve energy
efficiency, waste management or noise insulation, the strategy states.
Modest targets for installation of solar thermal heating systems and
photovoltaic (PV) cells are also included. Solar thermal heating is
earmarked to grow from current installed capacity of 3,500 units to
30,000, and 20,000 square metres of new PV cells are to be installed
over the next three years.
Follow-up: French housing ministry
http://www.logement.equipement.gouv.fr/,,
strategy
http://www.logement.equipement.gouv.fr/alaune/dossiers/presse_030102.pdf.
-------------------------
German ecotaxes defended as rates rise again
Environment Daily, 07/01/02
-------------------------
Germany's environment agency has again defended the government's
ecotax programme as tax rates on motor fuels and electricity rose on 1
January for the fourth consecutive year. Interim results from
modelling due to be published in full this spring show that 60,000 jobs
should be created in 2002 alone, the agency said on Thursday.
Ecological tax reform is one of the Red/Green government's flagship
environmental policies. It is also one of its most controversial.
Renewed protests by car drivers and hauliers have bubbled up with each
New Year tax rise, and opposition parties have sought to kill off
further increases (ED 16/02/01
http://www.environmentdaily.com/articles/index.cfm?action=article&ref=9333).
As in other years, motor fuel tax rose by euros 0.03 per litre on 1
January, while electricity tax went up by euros 0.01 per kilowatt hour.
As a result, an additional euros 1.94bn will come off employers'
social security contributions in 2002. It is this effect that will
boost employment, the agency suggests.
Based only on the motor fuel component of ecotax, the model forecasts
an extra 60,000 jobs in 2002. Assuming one further increase in January
2003, as currently planned by the government, the outlook for the
period 2002-2006 is an extra 90,000 jobs.
From now to 2006, the tax will also cut fuel expenditure by euros
1.33bn and increase spending on public transport by euros 410m, the
model suggests. Carbon dioxide emissions are predicted to fall by 7m
tonnes in 2002 and by 9m tonnes over the period 2002-6.
Follow-up: German environment agency http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/,
a press release
http://www.umweltbundesamt.de/uba-info-presse/presse-informationen/pd0102.htm
and ecotax programme backgrounder
http://www.bmu.de/english/topics/oekosteuer/oekosteuerreform_e.php.
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