EU Signals Shift In Europe’s Energy Strategy

The European Union's economic problems mean the bloc should be more flexible in the way it promotes a low-carbon economy and should broaden the focus of its energy policy beyond purely reducing greenhouse-gas emissions to ensuring that energy will remain affordable, the EU's energy chief said. Mr. Oettinger's comments signal a shift in the EU's clean-energy strategy, with a bigger focus on keeping down costs to preserve the competitiveness of the bloc's economy. In 2007, when the EU set its last binding targets for 2020 for greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy and efficiency, it focused almost exclusively on climate protection, Mr. Oettinger said. --Jan Hromadko,The Wall Street Journal, 10 April 2013