Some of us believe that the global warming, resulting into the climate change throughout the globe, is not caused by human activity. The United Nation’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has, in its latest report, indicated that the world has started changing in line with the forecasts from the computer models which include greenhouse gases as an integral factor.

The natural variation is very much unlikely to be the sole cause of these changes in the climate of the planet. The models which include only natural influences on the temperature of Earth, such as volcanoes and the solar activity, are significantly outperformed by the models that also include the greenhouse gases.

The States of the European Union recently agreed in Brussels upon a long-term strategy on the energy policy aimed at directing the nations of the world in the fight against the global warming. This strategy defines targets, to be binding for every nation, for significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions, for the development of renewable energy sources, for promoting energy efficiency and also for boosting the use of bio-fuels. It further lays down a challenge to the US and other major industrialized nations of the world to follow suit.

The Key points of the said strategy are that at least 20 per cent of the total energy used in the European Union will be coming from renewable sources by the year 2020; at least 10 per cent of the fossil fuels used in the transport will be replaced by the bio-fuels by the year 2020; and the greenhouse emissions will be reduced to 20 per cent below the 1990 levels by the year 2020.

The States of the European Union agreed to increase the emissions cap to 30 per cent if other nations including the US, Russia, China and India follow suit. The said strategy is equivalent of a White Paper on Energy Policy and is supposed to be used in order to formulate legally binding legislation subject to formal approval by the member countries. The strategy is said to be a breakthrough as regards the environment and climate change policy and has also been termed as the most ambitious package ever agreed by any group of countries on energy security and climate protection.

However, the agreement to adopt a legally binding target for renewable sources, which currently account for less that 7 per cent of the total energy mix, was a contentious point, It had been agreed on the condition that countries can contribute differently towards meeting the common goal.