EU climate change plans get cool reception

Activists and environmentalists reacted cooly on Wednesday to the European Commission's new plans to cut climate warming carbon emissions by one-fifth and boost energy from renewables like wind, waves and sun by 2020.

The Commission's plans will implement renewable energy and emissions-cutting targets agreed by EU leaders last March, and need approval by member states and the European Parliament.

But the 20 percent greenhouse gas emissions cuts are well below the 25-40 percent target the developed world agreed at a UN meeting on the Indonesian island of Bali last month.

"The promising parts of this energy package are overshadowed by a greenhouse gas target that falls well short of what is needed," said Friends of the Earth campaigner Sonja Meister. "Reducing greenhouse gases by only 20 per cent is simply not enough. The EU must live up to the agreements made in Bali."

Environmentalists and business welcomed the boost to renewables given by the committment to get 20 percent of all EU energy from these sources by 2020, and called on governments to make the money and conditions available to make it happen.

But activists rejected the EU's plan to get 10 percent of road fuels from agriculture as unworkable and unsustainable, noting the vast swathes of rain forest that have already been cut down to make way for production of so-called biofuels.