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In a two-day summit in Brussels, the 27-nation European Union committed itself to reducing its levels of the principal greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide (CO2), by 20 percent by 2020 compared with 1990 levels.

The EU would deepen this cut to 30 percent if "international partners" in global warming negotiations did likewise, said German Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency.

Member states will also be required to make renewable energies such as solar and wind account for at least 20 percent of the total energy consumption across the EU by 2020.

Putting words into action

Green activists said the 2020 CO2 goal was worthy but that the rhetoric had to underpinned by action.

Some noted that the EU was already having big problems meeting its far smaller goals for 2012 under the UN's Kyoto Protocol pact for curbing CO2 and other climate-changing gases.

"It is clear that the targets decided today will only be achieved with solid laws, measures and incentives," said Stephan Singer, head of the European Climate and Energy Unit at environmental group WWF.

"There are only 13 years for the EU to accomplish the mission defined today. These years are key to help saving the planet from the dangerous consequences of climate change," Singer said.

Too timid or too ambitious?

Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE) derided the 20 percent target as too timid and unlikely to encourage other big polluters to follow suit.

"It will be interesting to see the EU trying to persuade (US) President (George) Bush that he should reduce America's emissions by 30 percent by 2020 compared to 1990 levels, when EU leaders cowered away from adopting such a target for themselves today," FoEE climate campaigner Jan Kowalzig said in a press release.

Eliot Diringer, director of international strategies at the Pew Center on Global Climate Change, a US thinktank, said by dangling the offer of a 30-percent cut, the EU faced being accused of grandstanding.

"There's a good deal of skepticism (in Washington) about whether the EU is on track for meeting its commitments for 2012," he said in an interview with AFP.

"Their ambitious 2020 numbers are more credible if the perception is that they are indeed on track to meet their 2012 target. It's a big stretch that they're proposing (with the 2020 goal). There's a lot of things that have to happen between now and 2012 to make the (EU's Kyoto) commitment a reality," Diringer said.

"A real opportunity"

The 20-percent renewables target was hailed by the European Wind Energy Association (EWEA) as a "real opportunity" to switch to clean sources and ease EU dependence on unpredictable sources of foreign energy.

"Such a supply structure would benefit our economy, environment, companies and the welfare of European citizens for decades to come," EWEA's chief executive officer, Christian Kjaer said.

But, he cautioned, these benefits would only be achieved if EU countries broke up monopoly ownership of electricity transmission and production, so that renewables entering the energy market got fair access to the supply grid.

Creating jobs along the way

Andre Antolini, president of France's Renewable Energies Association, said that, at present, renewables had an average share of 6.75 percent of the EU energy market. The EU has a non-binding goal of 12 percent by 2010.

"The share has not progressed for years," Antolini said. "In some countries, there has been a substantial rise, but in terms of the overall EU share, this has been almost cancelled out by a corresponding increase in energy consumption."

To attain 20 percent meant tripling renewables' present share, which means lowering fossil-fuel use through greater use of rail and water transport for freight and use of biofuels and biomass for heating apartment blocks and offices, he said.

Antolini also predicted the 2020 target would be a huge job creator.

"Renewable energies have already generated 200,000 jobs in the EU, even though their share is below seven percent," he said.