Launch of the EU Climate Policy Tracker 2011

WWF and Ecofys launched the EU Climate Policy Tracker 2011 warning that EU climate and energy policy is failing to put the EU on a course to 2050 decarbonisation.

The EU Climate Policy Tracker (EU CPT) 2011 reveals that despite improvements by nine Member States over the past year, some have achieved a worse score than last year. Central and Eastern European countries tend to be lower ranked in the report. Poland, Romania and Bulgaria are criticised for providing inadequate plans for the implementation of the EU's goals for energy efficiency and renewables in industry.

Also, the overall average remains low. An evaluation of EU policy using a scale from A to G (where G is lowest) finds that the average score is a disappointing E. In particular, support for renewable energy sources declined in the course of the financial crisis. On the other hand, the report points to the increasing influence of Brussels in national environmental policies, saying: "The majority of new policy developments in EU member states are either direct implementation of EU legislation or are linked to EU legislation." The report gives a 'B' grade to EU policies on renewables, praising in particular the binding target for 20% renewable electricity by 2020 as "quite ambitious".

Other findings include a claim that the EU's emission trading system will fail to achieve a decarbonised economy by 2050, as "the current trajectory overshoots this goal by 20 years." The report prescribes a number of treatments including a carbon tax, a legal agreement on targets beyond 2020, and reforming farm policy to take climate change into account.

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