European Union heads of state will seek to agree on general principles on 2030 climate and energy policies at their summit in October, according to Jos Delbeke, director general for climate at the European Commission.

Detailed measures on how to implement post-2020 strategy will be proposed by the EU’s regulatory arm after leaders reach a political deal, he said in an interview in Luxembourg yesterday. The commission proposed the 28-nation bloc deepen its emission-reduction target to 40 percent by 2030 compared with the current goal of cutting greenhouse gases by 20 percent by 2020 from 1990 levels.

Delbeke comments:

ON STEPS LEADING TO OCTOBER SUMMIT:

“We are now preparing for the European Council in June, where we will present a progress report. It will be done on the basis of information from the meetings of environment and energy ministers this month and on the basis of informal consultations with the capitals.”

ON TIMING OF AGREEMENT:

“EU heads of state decided in March that a decision on the 2030 should be taken in October. There’s a bit of nervousness, but this is not leading to changing the deadline. I think we’re going to have a decision in October.”

“We also have the issue of energy security, which is related to the 2030 strategy. It makes sense to decide about those two at the same time.”

ON FORMAT OF DECISION:

“The European Council in October will give orientation on the main elements of the package. That will guide the legal work that the commission will then need to take forward. A legal proposal made by the commission will go to member states and to the European Parliament.”

“The decision at the summit will be about headline targets and will not cover all technical details. Heads of state will list a number of principles on climate, energy efficiency and renewables with the necessary guidance on effort sharing and on financing investment. We also continue to be attentive to carbon leakage.”

“One of the issues to be discussed with member states is also how to stimulate modernization of the power sector. Nobody wants the lights to go out. We want to innovate.”

ON 2020 and 2030 TARGETS:

“The proposal by the commission is to reduce emissions by 40 percent by 2030, leaving the target for 2020 at 20 percent. The target for 2020 is unlikely to be changed. Technically that could be done but politically we made a decision to focus on 2030. Given that climate change requires planning for the long term the 2030 decision is more important than 2020.”

ON COSTS FOR MEMBER STATES AND EFFORT SHARING:

“Member states want us to provide more detail of the results of our impact assessment at the national level. We’re preparing that now and in the next couple of weeks we should be able to come forward with it.”

“In non-ETS sectors all member states know their emission-reduction figures for 2020. We have said that compared to the same base year the figure needs to be upgraded on average by another 21 percent for 2030.”

“In the ETS sector, the Commission proposed that the reduction should be 43 percent. That compares with 21 percent in 2020 from 2005.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Ewa Krukowska in Luxembourg at ekrukowska@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Lars Paulsson at lpaulsson@bloomberg.net Jones Hayden