EU renewables programme: unlawful?

The Court of Justice of the European Union has accepted to process the recourse presented by the European Platform Against Windfarms (EPAW) (1). The ruling of the Court is expected in 12 - 18 months. The 608 associations composing the platform are hailing this as a first victory in their fight towards holding the European Commission accountable for the catastrophic results of its energy policy. The rights of European citizens have been violated, they claim, and at long last justice will be done.

The Commission has failed to conduct technical studies calculating how many tonnes of fossil fuels will really be saved by the hundreds of thousands of wind turbines it wants to force onto rural populations and on avian and marine life. “As it turns out, various independent engineers estimate there will be no savings at all (2), so the people are more than justified to seek redress,” says Mark Duchamp, the conservationist who runs EPAW.

The Aarhus Convention (3) requires that programmes that will affect the environment be elaborated with the participation of the public in a transparent manner. This means that Europeans should have been fully informed of the benefits of the EU renewable energy programme, as well as of its costs and undesirable impacts. “Instead”, argues Duchamp, “the Commission has been parroting the claims of the wind industry without verifying them.”   Διαβάστε περισσότερα...