Translation Gwendolyn Albert
Energy will indisputably be one of the leitmotifs of the Czech EU Presidency, but much will depend on how the government approaches the issue. It can either feverishly patch up existing “holes” or bring an ambitious plan for modernizing energy in the EU to the table.
The ball and chain
Europe is dragging around the burden of its high demand for energy and raw materials like a ball and chain. Every day – every single day – the EU swallows up more than one billion tons of coal, almost 15 million barrels of oil, more than 7 000 gigawatt hours of electricity, 63 000 kg of uranium, half a billion cubic meters of natural gas, not quite half a million tons of iron ore, 11 000 tons of copper, 20 000 tons of aluminum, a quarter of a million tons of paper and 48 million tons of plastic.
This high consumption increases the cost of importing fuel and raw materials. The Czech Republic is a prime example of poor resource management. For every crown of GDP produced, the country consumes 1.7 times more energy – in coal, uranium, oil, natural gas or renewable resources – than does the EU15. The production of EUR 1 000 in the Czech Republic requires 1.9 tons of materials, more than any other EU country. Higher costs mean more expensive products and therefore poor competitiveness on global markets.
Traces of carbon
The issue is not only about macroeconomic statistics and balance of trade. Every home feels this high consumption in high bills. The cost of electricity, heat and natural gas, prices at the gas pump - the exorbitant amounts we pay are a harsh reminder that better energy efficiency for the Czech economy would reduce the dependency of every family on the global markets.
Europe is one part of the world that bears the greatest share of responsibility for the growing concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. There are nine tons of CO2 produced annually per each EU inhabitant on average – and 12 tons per Czech (we are record-setters in Europe in this regard). In China the average is two tons per inhabitant, in India it is one ton, and the inhabitants of Kenya are responsible for only 300 kg.
Opportunities
A large part of this consumption is completely unnecessary. In January 2009, Europe lived in fear for more than a week over whether it would be left at the mercy of freezing winter temperatures due to the closing of the Russian taps. Half of the European demand for natural gas (and 60 % of the Czech demand) is swallowed up by households, most of it for heating buildings.
However, it does not have to be. The energy needs of Czech buildings could be gradually reduced by approximately 60 %, according to an independent study commissioned by Hnutí DUHA (Friends of the Earth Czech Republic). Everyone can have a warm, comfortable and healthy home – and when we reduce our energy bills, we are essentially reducing imports from Russia as well as greenhouse gas emissions.
This is an enormous opportunity which dwarfs the need to expand resources. The opportunity to reduce the energy demand of Czech buildings corresponds to 5.5 times the energy that would be produced by the controversial expansion of the coal mines – and the destruction of more communities – in the Mostecko district. The EU should reduce its consumption of energy for heating by the end of the next decade realistically; through the aid of technical measures alone it could reduce the equivalent of three-fourths of its imports of natural gas from Russia.
This does not only concern the heating of existing buildings. We can build new ones to meet the so-called low-energy standard. They are only 5 – 8 % more expensive to construct and consume two-thirds less energy to heat. In the Czech Republic there are several dozen such buildings, while in Austria and Germany they are growing by the thousands.
Czech industry could also improve its energy efficiency by 23 % through existing technologies, i.e., the equivalent of the energy produced by two nuclear power plants in Dukovany. The greatest opportunities are in the grocery industry, which can reduce its consumption by approximately one-third, as well as in the paper, textile and machine engineering industries.
We also have enormous possibilities elsewhere:
- Ultra-efficient cars with low fuel consumption would reduce oil imports from unreliable parts of the world.
- Better recycling reduces dependency on raw materials imports. Millions of tons of high-quality materials in the Czech Republic and hundreds of millions across the EU end up in dumps or are incinerated every year.
- Green energy options such as solar panels, wind power plants or clean furnaces running on domestic biomass can exploit cheap and inexhaustible resources for electricity and heat.
Topolánek’s task 1: An ambitious plan
Europe is faced with an enormous opportunity, and that goes double for the Czech Republic. It now has to take advantage of it. However, there is a catch, and this is where the Czech EU Presidency has a role to play.
We need new, effective laws, tax reform and grant programs that will give an impulse to creative innovation, as well as massive investment into modern, highly efficient technology.
At the end of last year, Member State ministers and EP deputies approved a package of legislative programs to move the economy forward. A new directive on renewable energy resources will jump-start the production of domestic green energy. Reforms to the trade in emissions have been full of omissions, exceptions and delays; nevertheless, industrial enterprises are gradually being motivated to invest into more efficient production.
However, many steps have not been taken yet. During its half-year, the Czech EU Presidency should undertake two important steps to move us forward.
Task Number One: Europe must formulate an ingenious, systematic plan for how to drastically improve the economy’s energy efficiency step by step and year by year. Political leaders should use this ambitious program as a framework for their specific measures – not the reverse.
Mirek Topolánek and his ministers should propose this plan to the EU and convince them that Europe needs it – the January natural gas crisis being just one of the reasons.
Topolánek’s task 2: Green buildings
Task Number Two: The Czech EU Presidency has another important task, namely, to moderate the revision to the so-called directive on the energy demand of buildings.
The current directive establishes minimum standards for energy efficiency which must be met by new or renovated buildings in the Member States. Every building must have an energy card, something like an index card showing the total energy demand of its refrigerators, washing machines and other electrical appliances. A buyer would then be able to indirectly estimate how much it would cost to heat the home.
However, there is a large loophole in the legislation – a 20 x 50 meter hole. It only applies to new constructions or reconstruction of buildings with areas of more than 1 000 square meters. The new directive should close up this gap.
More effective legislation would be a massive benefit. It would help reduce the heating bills for millions of families and would permit us to exploit the largest, least expensive individual opportunity the EU has for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The EP has already preliminarily approved the abolition of the 1 000-meter limit by a vote of 592 to 26.
Specific standards for energy efficiency should come into effect within one or two years and should be regularly revised. This will motivate further innovations and the gradual installation of modern technologies.
New legislation should also take advantage of the positive experiences of some Member States to introduce the rule that developers must provide for part of the energy consumed by a new building through solar panels on the roof or some other renewable resource. Not only does this open the way toward a market in green sources of heating, it liberates future tenants from high bills for heating with natural gas.