The European Union’s energy sector is based mainly on fossil fuels, almost two-thirds of which are imported. If the current trends continue, import levels will reach more than 70% of the European Union’s overall energy needs by 2030. The development of renewable energy sources began with the 1970 oil crises and the stark realisation that fossil resources would, one day, run out. Additionally the European Union acknowledged that successful development of the renewable energy sector required strong, continued and smart political commitment. Five years after the 1992 Earth Summit, climate change was at the center of international debate in advance of the upcoming Third Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change being held in Kyoto, Japan, December 1997. The European Union recognised the urgent need to tackle climate change. It also adopted a negotiating position of a 15% greenhouse gas emissions reduction target for industrialised countries by the year 2010, down from 1990 levels. To facilitate European Union Member States attainment of this objective, the Commission, through its 1997 Communication on the Energy Dimension of Climate Change, identified a series of energy actions, including a prominent role for renewables. Together with the binding 20% renewable energy target by 2020, the EU also adopted a target of 20% improvement in the EU’s energy efficiency as well as a 20% greenhouse gas reduction target (respectively 30%, if other industrialised countries commit to similar ambitions) by 2020.