The only successful way out of the climate change crisis will be a rapid transformation of the world’s energy base away from its excessive dependence on the burning of fossil fuels. Global demand for oil needs to stop growing within a few years and then to decline steadily to much lower levels by the mid-century. There needs to be a major switch from fossil fuels to alternative sources of energy, and a quantum leap improvement in energy efficiency in all sectors. The change needed is comparable in scale to a new industrial revolution.
Derek Osborn added: "The European Union has made a good start on the measures needed within Europe with its Climate Change and Energy package. These can and should be implemented swiftly and vigorously. But, even if that is achieved, the EESC believes that a further set of measures will be needed before we have a fully adequate and comprehensive strategy for Europe. The public must also be engaged more fully in understanding the need for major change and playing their part in bringing it about. Civil society organisations of all kinds need to be involved in the process of spreading awareness and acceptance of the necessary changes, particularly those that will affect lifestyles and behaviour. We need to make these changes swiftly and cooperatively so as to create a European model for transforming our economy to a low carbon base that will be attractive and influential in the rest of the world.
The EESC opinion makes concrete proposals to reduce European oil demand in key sectors, such as transport (e.g. planning cities, towns and other settlements so as to reduce journey lengths and times; systematic preference for rail rather than air flights, public transport rather than private transport, electric or hydrogen powered vehicles rather than internal combustion, cycling and walking wherever possible), construction and building (e.g. replacement of oil for heating, cooling and cooking by electricity from green sources), power generation (e.g. renewable sources to be expanded as fast as possible, coal and oil-powered power stations to be fitted with carbon capture and storage as soon as possible). In order to bring about these changes there need to be strong fiscal and regulatory measures to drive the process, major public and private investment programmes, and strong political, business and civil society leadership to create the necessary dynamic and momentum for change.
This EESC opinion was requested by the European Parliament to obtain the view of Europe's organised civil society on the long-term trends of oil supply and demand. The Parliament’s ITRE Committee is due to adopt a report on this topic on 20 January. The EESC urges the Parliament to frame their report primarily in the context of climate change and the need to reduce oil consumption massively in the years ahead.
Derek Osborn added "Reducing Europe’s consumption of imported oil and relying more on Europe-based alternative energy sources will also make us less vulnerable to oil-price shocks and longer term interruptions or constraints on oil supply. The high oil prices of the first half of 2008 were a wake-up call. The subsequent decline in prices does not mean that the long-term problem has gone away. We need to act now to make our society less dependent on a resource that is certainly finite and can only become more difficult to obtain in the years ahead."
