Europex “Benchmark Report on Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency and Emissions Trading”

Brussels, 1 July 2010 | This report was prepared by the Working Group on Environmental Markets (WGEM) and aims at providing a simple guide of the different environmental policies implemented in several European countries, including Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia and Spain, to promote electricity production from renewable energy sources (RES) as well as energy efficiency measures to reduce electricity and gas consumption, emissions reduction.

Europe has been very active in the last decade in tackling climate change consequences by introducing several initiatives, among which the Directive 2001/77/CE on the promotion of electricity from RES in the Member States, the Directive 2006/32/CE on energy end-use efficiency and energy services and the Directive 2003/87/CE establishing a scheme for greenhouse gas emission allowance trading within the Community. Both the Directive on renewables and the Directive on energy efficiency gave the Member States the possibility to choose their own policies, with the result of having a different scheme for each country.

Please find the whole report, including the main findings, attached.