Environment ministers from the EU's 27 member states meet in Paris for a two-day meeting starting July 3 with the aim of clearing some of the many obstacles besetting their goal of slashing carbon emissions by 2020. Taking charge of the first top-level environmental debate of the French EU Presidency, French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was expected to ask his counterparts to identify two key areas of national concern to help spur the negotiation process. "I find the mood is good, there's no posturing, no-one's playing games, but at the same time we are dealing with a question that's tough, there are very tough things here," Borloo told reporters. "To put things in perspective, the economies of 27 countries with a variety of backgrounds in energy and industry are being asked to make a somewhat radical shift using everyday budgets," he said. "At the moment, no other region in the world is attempting something on this scale."
Taking charge of the first top-level environmental debate of the French EU Presidency, French Ecology Minister Jean-Louis Borloo was expected to ask his counterparts to identify two key areas of national concern to help spur the negotiation process.
"I find the mood is good, there's no posturing, no-one's playing games, but at the same time we are dealing with a question that's tough, there are very tough things here," Borloo told reporters.
"To put things in perspective, the economies of 27 countries with a variety of backgrounds in energy and industry are being asked to make a somewhat radical shift using everyday budgets," he said. "At the moment, no other region in the world is attempting something on this scale."
the new member states have 177 billion euros of EU structural and cohesion fund money pouring in up to 2013.
so far they have deemed it appropriate to allocate just over 2 percent of this bonanza to energy efficiency and renewables, while at the same time prioritising carbon-intensive development modes:
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