Targetting: energy, or wording, transition

All sorts of news today as Germany's newest government's super minister (energy and economy) speaks, and the EU commission settles on targets to propose to some assembly or other for ratification, or not, later on this year.

Connie Hedegaard: "A 40% emissions reduction by 2030 is the most cost-effective target for the EU"

Energy Commissioner Günther Oettinger said: "The 2030 framework is the EU's drive for progress towards a competitive low-carbon economy, investment stability and security of energy supply. My aim is to make sure that energy remains affordable for households and companies. The 2030 framework sets a high level of ambition for action against climate change, but it also recognises that this needs to be achieved at least cost. The internal energy market provides the basis to achieve this goal and I will continue to work on its completion in order to use its full potential. This includes the 'Europeanisation' of renewable energy policies".

Awesome.

Right Greenpeace?

Commission president Barroso sells out on climate and energy policy

Greenpeace EU managing director Mahi Sideridou said: “The January sales are on and it looks like Europe’s dirty energy companies have bagged a bargain. The Commission’s plan for 2030 is a sell-out that would knock the wind out of a booming renewables industry. European citizens will pay the price: fewer green jobs, more imports of expensive fossil fuels and shorter lives because of pollution... 

Greenpeace is calling for a binding EU 2030 target to cut domestic emissions by at least 55 per cent, a binding target to increase the share of renewables to 45 per cent and a binding target for energy efficiency of 40 per cent.

Uh-huh.

Everything's gone so well thus far, why not ratchet things up?

German Energy Official Sounds a Warning | New York Times

BERLIN — Germany’s new energy minister on Tuesday struck a sobering tone about the country’s ambitious goals for making its energy sector more reliant on renewable sources, saying that rising costs risked losing public support and jeopardizing the powerful German industrial base.
... annual consumer costs for renewables o... were already pushing the limits of what the German economy, Europe’s most powerful, could handle.
...“The energy transformation has the potential to be an economic success, but it can also cause a dramatic de-industrialization of our country.”
...“We need to control the expansion of renewable energy, and not have the anarchy that we have seen previously,”

...Adding to the pressure is an investigation by the European Union into exemptions for energy-intensive operations in Germany, which Brussels says might violate trade laws

Mr. Gabriel said that he would push back against Brussels...“Germany is paying for the learning curve that others don’t need to pay for..."

Perhaps the rest of the Europe is benefiting from the knowledge gained through Germany's payment for the learning curve - Greenpeace excepted.