EU Commission and Legitimacy of Wind Policy

“The Wheels of Justice Grind Slow..."

Justice has however caught up with the EU and "Green Energy" is next on the docket - In May 2011 the UNECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee ruled1 that the EU needed to review its measures, to provide better access to justice, in order that citizens can challenge decisions, acts and omissions by EU institutions and bodies in environmental matters.

Clearly there is growing anger in Europe about the democratic deficit, with decisions being taken at EU and National level, without consultation with the public at local level.  Nowhere is this more visible than with the official obsession with renewable energy, wind farms in particular, which are radically altering Europe’s landscape at huge financial costs.  The EU set mandatory targets by diktat.  National policies have also been set by diktat and the planning process is then a ‘rubber stamp’, in which the citizen has no access to justice to contest the decision in a legal court – as it is too expensive.  If you are unfortunate enough to live in a rural area, you will have to live with these giants.  The number of turbines installed to date, is only a taste of what is required to fulfill EU targets.

Yet the citizen has Rights - the United Nations Rio Declaration of 1992 on Environment and Development stated: “Environmental issues are best handled with participation of all concerned citizens, at the relevant level”.  These Rights were then developed into the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Aarhus Convention on Access to Information, Public Participation in Decision-Making and Access to Justice in Environmental Matters.  The EU ratified it in 2005, as did the Member States (excluding Ireland).  However, these Human and Environmental Rights are only the text of an international agreement, which is not being observed, particularly when matters of wind energy are concerned.

The first pillar of the Convention, on access to information, is to ensure that the public can understand what is happening in the environment around them and is able to participate in an informed manner.  Engineers should explain how wind turbines need a wind speed of 50 kph to reach their design output and then, if this is reduced to 25 kph, which is still greater than the average wind speed, the power output goes down by a factor of eight.  They may turn, but they don’t produce significant power.  In essence as more and more rapidly varying wind input is put on the grid, the thermal plants are having to operate like cars, which have been taken off nice steady motorway driving and placed on stop / go, variable urban driving.  As a result their fuel consumption and emissions start to rise.  Amazingly we are already reaching the point in many countries where if we install any more turbines, there simply won’t be any emissions or fuel savings.

Yet the documentation produced by the EU and Member States ignores these inefficiencies.  The EU instead, in what little technical information it has developed on its renewable energy program, quotes the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA), an industry group, whose information programs it funds to the tune of several hundred thousand Euros2.  This is a breach of the Aarhus Convention, which requires that the way in which authorities make environmental information available to the public is transparent.  Even the EU’s own regulations require that: “Community institutions and bodies shall, insofar as is within their power, ensure that any information compiled by them, or on their behalf, is up-to-date, accurate and comparable.”

One can, under the Convention, request information from the authorities.  Recently the Danish EU Commissioner on Climate Action went on Irish prime-time radio, on February 3rd, 2011 and stated that offshore wind energy “actually pays off, it is sound economics”.  When questioned, her officials only reply was that her statements were based on “publicly available information and her general experience, knowledge and political views”.  The only documentation they produced used the EWEA as a technical reference.  Furthermore, for the past six months officials at DG Energy have been unable to provide information on how existing offshore wind farms are actually performing, whereas in reality it is known that serious technical failures are occurring.  Yet; “developing wind resources offshore is a particular priority of the Community”3.

How did we end up with these renewable targets and policies?  After all environmental foresight is mandatory under the Aarhus Convention, there has to be a legal basis for the consideration of the environmental aspects of policies and programs.  The public has to be notified and informed when all options are open, then provided with the opportunity to participate effectively in the decision-making in a transparent and fair framework.  In making the decision, due account has to be taken of the outcome of the public participation.  This was never done.

Instead ‘political consensus’ was reached for a target of 20% of the EU’s energy to be from renewable sources.  No proper technical, environmental or financial assessment was ever completed.  In the 2009 Directive on renewable energy4, mandatory targets were set for the Member States based on their existing renewable energy input, increased by a factor, based on their GDP, to give an overall 20% figure for the 27 Member States.  The general public were simply never properly informed or consulted.  The National Renewable Energy Action Plans, prepared by the Member States, don’t even have to document what greenhouse gas savings are to be achieved or what jobs are expected to be created, the two avowed principles behind the policy.  Why?  Because the template set by the Commission has this as an option5.  See examples below taken from the Member State National Renewable Energy Action Plans.

In May 2011 the UNECE Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee ruled6 that the EU needed to review its measures, to provide better access to justice, in order that citizens can challenge decisions, acts and omissions by EU institutions and bodies in environmental matters.  Furthermore, the Compliance Committee is also investigating the manner in which the EU renewable energy program is being implemented in Ireland, with regard to its compliance with the Convention7.


                
Dutch Energy Action Plan
The National Renewable Energy Action Plan of the Netherlands

Danish & Swedish Energy Action Plan
Danish and Swedish National Renewable Energy Action Plans


French Energy Action Plan
French National Renewable Energy Action Plan
 
 
 
1.  See in particular findings and recommendations on Communication ACCC/C/2008/32 (last page):http://www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance/CC-32/ece.mp.pp.c.1.2011.4.add.1.edited.adv%20copy.pdf

2. See for example: http://www.wind-energy-the-facts.org/

3.  http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/wind_energy/wind_energy_en.htm  Note this issue is the part of the subject of Investigation 2587/2009/JF at the EU Ombudsman, in which a decision is due by the end of August 2011.

4.  See Recital 15 of Directive 2009/28/EC: http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2009:140:0016:0062:en:PDF

5.  See in particular Sections 5.3 and 5.4 of the Action Plans at: http://ec.europa.eu/energy/renewables/transparency_platform/action_plan_en.htm

6. See in particular findings and recommendations on Communication ACCC/C/2008/32 (last page):http://www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance/CC-32/ece.mp.pp.c.1.2011.4.add.1.edited.adv%20copy.pdf

7.  See in particular last two pdfs of: http://www.unece.org/env/pp/compliance/Compliance%20Committee/54TableEU.htm