European Union regulators should focus on energy efficiency, not renewable energy, to reduce global warming gases, the EU's main business lobby said Monday.

Energy efficiency could reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 9 percent, or 60 million tons, in the European residential sector alone by 2020, said BusinessEurope, which represents 20 million European businesses.

European firms are already the second-most energy-efficient in the world, after Japan, the lobbying group said.

"If all the world used energy as productively as in Europe, a major step toward solving the energy and climate problems would be taken," it said.

A report for Germany by U.S. management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. showed energy-saving technologies are readily available, profitable and cost-effective, but are seldom applied because companies -- in particular, small and midsize companies -- often lack the required information or expertise, the group said.

These technologies could lower energy demand by more than 20 percent by 2020, a key EU target, BusinessEurope said.

The group said that if other countries followed the European efficiency example, the world could achieve energy and carbon-dioxied reductions of up to 25 percent by 2020, the EUobserver news service reported.  // Copyright 2007 by United Press International



Publication date: 27 November 2007   

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