@techreport{SpencerPierfedericiSartoretal.2016, author = {Spencer, Thomas and Pierfederici, Roberta and Sartor, Oliver and Berghmans, Nicolas and Samadi, Sascha and Fischedick, Manfred and Knoop, Katharina and Pye, Steve and Criqui, Patrick and Mathy, Sandrine and Capros, Pantelis and Fragkos, Panagiotis and Bukowski, Maciej and Sniegocki, Aleksander and Virdis, Maria Rosa and Gaeta, Maria and Pollier, Karine and Cassisa, Cyril}, title = {State of the low-carbon energy union : assessing the EU's progress towards its 2030 and 2050 climate objectives}, series = {Study / Institut du d{\´e}veloppement durable et des relations internationales}, volume = {2016,8}, institution = {Inst. du d{\´e}veloppement durable et des relations internationales}, address = {Paris}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:wup4-opus-65998}, pages = {45}, year = {2016}, abstract = {Rather than examining aggregate emissions trends, this study delves deep into the dynamics affecting each sector of the EU energy system. It examines the structural changes taking place in power production, transport, buildings and industry, and benchmarks these with the changes required to reach the 2030 and 2050 targets. In so doing it aims to influence both the ambition and direction of future policy decisions, both at Member State and EU level. In order to assess the adequacy of the EU and its Member States policies with the 2030 and 2050 decarbonisation objectives, this study goes beyond the aggregate GHG emissions or energy use figures and analyse the underlying drivers of emission changes, following a sectoral approach (power generation, buildings, industry, and transport). Historical trends of emission drivers are compared with the required long-term deep decarbonisation pathways, which provide sectoral {"}benchmarks{"} or {"}corridors{"} against which to analyse the rate and direction of historical change for each Member State and the EU in aggregate. This approach allows the identification of the necessary structural changes in the energy system and policy interventions to reach deep decarbonisation, and therefore the comparison with the current policy programs at European and Member State level.}, language = {en} }