But Poland threatens to use veto against agreement aimed to set the stage for Paris summit if it is not granted exemptions

This article is more than 5 years old

This article is more than 5 years old

European leaders were expected to strike a broad climate change pact obliging the EU as a whole to cut greenhouse gases by at least 40% by 2030.

But key aspects of the deal that will form a bargaining position for global climate talks in Paris next year were left vague or voluntary, raising questions as to how the aims would be realised.

Draft proposals were given to national delegations on watermarked paper in sealed envelopes as the EU summit in Brussels started on Thursday, in an attempt to prevent leaks.

The proposals pencilled in two 27% targets – for renewable energy market share and increase in energy efficiency improvement. The former would be binding only on the EU as a whole. The latter would be voluntary, although it could be raised to 30% by a review in 2020.

The Brussels summit was dominated by arguments over energy savings and climate policy, with countries from Poland to Portugal pleading special circumstances and threatening to veto any breakthrough unless their demands were met.

Acute divisions over the energy policy were reflected in the fact that summit “sherpas” were still meeting on Thursday afternoon to draft a deal for the leaders.

David Cameron was keen to minimise any perceived loss of UK sovereignty over energy policy, for fear of further exposure to attacks from the Eurosceptic wing of his Conservative party and Ukip. The prime minister insisted that policies aimed at boosting renewables and saving electricity be voluntary for member states.

“It’s important that you’ve got flexibility over your energy mix,” said a Downing Street spokeswoman. Cameron hoped to cut the energy efficiency figure to 25%, but was prepared to accept 27% as long as it was not binding on Britain.

Poland, heavily dependent on coal-fired energy production, threatened to block the deal unless the costs to its economy and industry were discounted by €15bn-€20bn (£12bn-£16bn) between 2020 and 2030, under a complicated system of concessions from the EU’s carbon trading system.

Concessions granted Poland will allow it to continue reaping hundreds of millions of euros in free allowances to modernise coal-fired power plants. Of eight EU nations eligible for the free allocations, Poland claimed 60% of the total up until 2019.

A poll by TNS and YouGov for the online activist group Avaaz late last week found that 56% of Poles thought that EU financial support for energy should back clean energy rather than fossil fuels.

“It’s scandalous,” said Julia Michalak, a spokeswoman for Climate Action Network Europe. “A continuation of free emission permits for Poland’s coal-reliant energy system would be a grave mistake. Leaders who came to Brussels to agree new historic climate goals, are actually discussing whether to hand out money to Europe’s dirtiest power plants.”

Intense bilateral discussions between Cameron, the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and other EU leaders over the last week tried to find ways of placating the Poles, who have kept open their option of vetoing the summit outcome.

Portugal and Spain demanded a more substantial system of electricity interconnectors across the Pyrenees enabling them to market surplus renewable energy in France, which is heavily nuclear-dependent and reluctant to open its energy market to competition from the Iberian peninsula.

The final draft said the interconnectors system should be expanded to be capable of carrying 15% of electricity generated in the EU, but this figure was merely a recommendation. Diplomats and officials said the Portuguese were deeply unhappy.

It was not clear whether the leaders would reach an agreement. “It will be very hard negotiations,” said a senior German official. “This is just a first step,” said a French diplomat. “Then everything has to be turned into European legislation. It’s complicated.”

The anticipated 40% greenhouse gas cut by 2030 would be measured against benchmark 1990 levels. That figure is to be binding on the EU and the minimum level achieved, with Germany and Britain happy to agree a higher figure.

But the details of how the burden is spread across 28 countries have still to be settled, suggesting that the agreement would be simply a negotiating position for next year’s crunch talks in Paris on a global climate change deal.

Tony Robson, the CEO of Knauf Insulation – a leading insulation firm that had threatened to divest from Europe unless firm energy saving targets were announced – said that the 27% figure for energy efficiency improvement was “no better than business as usual” in an open letter to EU leaders.

A 27% target “sends a strong signal to the energy efficiency industry to ‘leave Europe and make your investments elsewhere’,” he wrote.