How Europe can save the world

Summary

The EU has committed to reduce the CO2 emission level 20% by 2020 compared to level in 1990.They start to put more weight in using renewable energy sources such as water (hydropower), solar, air, tidal power and biofuels. The production and use of renewable energy sources has also grown more quickly in recent years due to the EU attempt to decrease the reliance on Middle Eastern oil and Russian gas.
The EU agreed to come up with detailed action and set up several policies to fulfill this commitment. For examples; they immediately work to reduce CO2 emission from cars and by year 2010 every new power station in Europe will follow new regulations in terms of CO2 emission reduction.

The use of renewable energy sources is expected to continue to grow over the next years, while the EU will still rely on non-renewable fuels to meet most of their energy needs. The renewable energy sources are still expensive and can cause several environmental problems, which will present the EU with serious challenges. As an example for such as environmental problem, the mass biofuel farming in the Amazon could accelerate the destruction of the rain forest.

During December, a key meeting will be held by the UN to discuss a possible successor treaty for Kyoto.


Main Ideas

Many alternatives have been introduced in order to renew the energy sources.The EU introduced a lot of actions and policies to prevent the climate change. Furthermore, any new power station in Europe will co-operate with the new regulation. Awareness is expected to increase all over the world in the coming years.


My opinion

Well, although the article is promising to reducing the carbon emissions, I believe that all the countries will face difficulties to use the alternatives fuels or implement the regulations fully due to the current economical crises. Fossil fuel makes much more profits and each country wants to recover their loss. I would end by saying there is a big gap between the reality and the speeches.