The fossil fuel
lobby had a major victory in Europe, according the The Guardian. The EU has
been circulating a plan that will label gas energy as a low-carbon energy and
thus make it eligible for a portion of the funds intended for renewable energy
research and development.
The proposed program
circulating titled Horizon 2020, is an €80 billion program for research
and innovation for 2014-2020. More than €30 billion of that is intended
for renewable research and development, a laudable action. However the language of the document explicitly labels gas a
low-carbon energy. Besides the obviously ineffective move of subsidizing one industry in its infancy while simultaneously subsidizing its mature competitor, the re-labeling of fossil fuels as "low carbon" could have much larger consequences.
It is an especially contradictory move for the EU as they enter the Rio +20 this year with plans to promote renewable energy development globally. Read Fiona Harvey's article in The Guardian, "Gas rebranded as green energy by EU", for more details of this gas coup.
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