"Events, dear boy, events." The famous - and quite possibly apocryphal - description by Harold Macmillan of what a prime minister fears most neatly sums up what's happened to the 20:20:20 targets introduced by a well-meaning group of European politicians in 2007. The targets, aimed at bringing energy policy in line with the sustainability agenda, were made in a different time, for a different world. As we show on page 16, their genesis coincided almost exactly with the unfolding of the worst financial crisis in nearly 100 years.