"In 2050 electricity generation can be CO2 neutral”

Interview with Hans ten Berge, EURELECTRIC

Member organizations of the European electricity industry association, EURELECTRIC, have committed to CO2-neutral electricity supply by 2050, In an interview in our relation magazine Global Contact with EURELECTRIC Secretary General Hans ten Berge, he is expecting CO2 trading to deliver a great deal.

"What matters to the electricity industry is a balanced, free market, a carbon-neutral production infrastructure that doesn’t affect the climate and a general appreciation of electricity as a solution, rather than a necessary evil," Hans ten Berge states in Global Contact. "It it is feasible to achieve carbon-neutral electricity generation in Europe in 2050. Realizing that goal does, however, mean investing roughly 2,000 billion euros in renewables, nuclear power, thermal power and CCS as well as in transmission infrastructure. This equates to four thousand euros for every person in the EU over forty years, or a hundred euros per person per year.”

Price of carbon
"Our stance implies an acceptance that CO2 has a price. We regard CO2 emissions trading as an effective mechanism. To get emissions down 20% cent by 2020, the emissions ceiling needs to be lowered by 1.7% a year. Although no deal was struck at Copenhagen, we are sticking by the idea of incremental emission reductions. Then, if the market does its job, electricity from coal-fired plants that don’t have CCS will become so expensive that no one in their right mind would consider buying up enough emission rights to keep on generating power that way. When we get to that stage, renewables won’t require subsidies. Subsidies distort the power market by keeping the price of CO2 artificially low."