Plans for a Low-Carbon Future

'Reducing CO2 Emissions Early Can Save Money in the Longer Term'

An open pit coal mine near Jülich, Germany, with a coal-fired power plant in the distance: "For the foreseeable future, we can't fuel our economies without coal."

2 February 2011 - In an interview, EU Commissioner for Climate Action Connie Hedegaard discusses the upcoming energy summit in Brussels, the need for stronger energy efficiency regulations in Europe, the inevitable use of coal in the foreseeable future and plans for a low-carbon future.

SPIEGEL: European leaders will convene on Friday for a summit on a new European Union energy strategy. Is this yet another European meeting of big talk and little action, like previous announcements to become the most competitive region in the world?

Hedegaard: Well, I hope not. It should be used as an opportunity to tell the 500 million European citizens that we have to think about energy in a new way. It's not just about new power lines or power plants, it's more fundamentally about how we can save and how efficiently we can use energy. At the moment, we're wasting a lot of highly valuable energy because our machines and systems are far from being as efficient as can be. So the summit should focus European research and innovation capacities on this. {continued}