The European Commission adopted on 8 March a Roadmap for transforming the European Union into a competitive low carbon economy by 2050. The Roadmap describes the cost-effective pathway to reach the EU's objective of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and gives direction to sectoral policies, national and regional low-carbon strategies and long-term investments.

The Roadmap for moving to a low-carbon economy in 2050 sets out a cost-efficient pathway to reach the objective endorsed by the Council to reduce EU emissions of greenhouse gases to 80-95% below 1990 levels by 2050. In order to reach such objective, Commission's Roadmap suggests that Europe should achieve it largely through domestic measures since by mid-century international credits to offset emissions will be less widely available than today.

The European Commission has invited invited institutions, member states and stakeholders to take the Roadmap into account in the further development of EU and national policies for achieving a low carbon economy by 2050. As a next step the Commission also considers a need to develop specific sectoral roadmaps in cooperation with the sectors concerned.

Low-carbon oriented investments which generate positive externalities

It is estimated that building a low carbon EU economy will require, over the next 40 years, additional annual investment equivalent to 1.5% of EU GDP, which represents about 270 billion euro, on top of overall current investment of 19% of GDP. This increase would merely return Europe to the investment levels seen before the economic crisis, and much or all of this extra investment will be recovered through lower import bills for oil and gas. These savings are estimated at 175-320 billion euro a year.

Moreover, this low carbon investment through clean technologies, infrastructure such as 'smart' electricity grids and environmental protection, will have multiple benefits.

Fuel costs are paid largely to third countries, while investment creates value-added in the EU. On top of reducing Europe's dependence on energy imports, and therefore the vulnerability to potential oil price shocks, as supported by the Council at its special meeting held in February 2011, the investment would stimulate new sources of growth, preserve existing jobs and create new ones.

Among positive externalities arising from low carbon promotion , air pollution and its associated health costs would also be cut. Total benefits from better air quality are estimated to reach up to 88 billion euro a year by 2050.