Looking for the Cure-All? Targets and the EU's New Energy Strategy

CEPS Policy Briefs No. 118

6 Pages Posted: 1 Feb 2009

See all articles by Christian Egenhofer

Christian Egenhofer

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS)

Date Written: January 23, 2007

Abstract

One of the most controversial issues in the European Union's 'energy and climate change vision', has been the nature of long-term targets, especially for specific sectors such as renewables as a share of electricity generation. The discussion about the need for these additional sectoral targets is likely to continue and come to the fore again in the negotiations in the Energy and Environment Councils in February, to be finally settled in the European Council on 8-9 March 2007. In this new Policy Brief, Christian Egenhofer identifies a number of key conditions that are crucial to make indicative or 'aspirational' targets work in the EU. If these are met, he argues, targets can be useful in steering investment in a desirable direction while avoiding the most important risks: market segmentation, rent-seeking, lack of credibility or reversal of a policy leading to stranded investment.

Keywords: Energy, Climate Change

Suggested Citation

Egenhofer, Christian, Looking for the Cure-All? Targets and the EU's New Energy Strategy (January 23, 2007). CEPS Policy Briefs No. 118, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1334646

Christian Egenhofer (Contact Author)

Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) ( email )

1 Place du Congres
B-1000 Brussels, 1000
Belgium

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
98
Abstract Views
628
Rank
485,733
PlumX Metrics