The Future of Energy in the Atlantic Basin Working Paper Series

The European Union (EU) has established competitiveness, security of supply and environmental sustainability as the pillars of its energy policy and the axis around which goals and instruments would center. In March 2007, the European Council adopted the so called “20/20/20 ” targets, which involved the implementation of the principles of the European energy policy in the 2020 horizon around three objectives: to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20%, to reach a 20 % share of renewable energy on final energy consumption and to improve energy efficiency by 20%. The foundations of these objectives are largely explained by the context of early 21 st century-Europe, in which concerns about economic growth and competitiveness had been displaced by the pursuit of a prosperous economic situation, and climate change and environmental sustainability had been positioned as priority challenges that needed to be addressed with an ambitious framework. However, the world has changed significantly since these goals were adopted. Th