Commission proposes Strategic Energy Technology Plan
The European Commission has proposed a Strategic Energy Technology Plan
with the goal of boosting research into the new, low carbon
technologies which Europe will need if it is to meet its climate change
targets.
The EU has set itself targets of reducing greenhouse gas emissions
by 20% by 2020, and by 2050 it hopes to reduce emissions by 60 to 80%.
Meeting these ambitious goals will require new technologies, and if
Europe does not take the lead in their development, other areas of the
world will.
'Decisions taken over the next 10 to 15 years will have profound
consequences for energy security, for climate change and for growth and
jobs in Europe. If we fall behind in the intensifying global race to
win low carbon technology markets, we risk meeting our targets with
imported technologies,' warned EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs.
Unfortunately energy research in Europe is currently under-funded,
dispersed and badly coordinated. There are structural weaknesses in the
energy innovation process, and public budgets for energy research have
fallen substantially since the 1980s.
'We have the chance to be world leaders in low carbon technologies,
but if Europe doesn't act together more effectively, we will squander
that opportunity and the economic benefits of the transition to a low
carbon economy will go elsewhere,' said Janez Potocnik, the EU's
Science and Research Commissioner. 'The ideas that the Commission is
putting forward today will allow Europe to develop a world class
portfolio of affordable, clean, efficient and low emission energy
technologies.'
The new plan sets out a number of actions to tackle the fragmented
nature of European energy research. These include the creation of
European Industrial Initiatives, which will bring together the relevant
resources and actors in a particular sector such as wind, solar,
bio-energy and nuclear fission. How these initiatives work will vary
from sector to sector, but it is likely that some could be set up as
Joint Technology Initiatives.
The Commission also proposes the establishment of a European Energy
Research Alliance, which will boost cooperation between the many
scientific disciplines engaged in research that impacts upon energy
technologies, such as physics, chemistry, materials science and
engineering.
In order to ensure all policy makers and stakeholders in the energy
sector are aware of the latest technologies and ideas, the Commission
will set up and run a European Energy Technology System. This will
provide the latest information on new technologies and barriers to
uptake and further development.
Switching Europe's energy infrastructure and networks to a low
carbon system will require massive changes entailing significant
investments in a wide range of sectors. Planning how to carry out these
changes as efficiently as possible is therefore a major priority, and
the Commission will develop its ideas in this area in 2008.
Finally, and European Community Steering Group on Strategic Energy
Technologies will enable Member States and the Commission to plan joint
actions and coordinate policies and programmes.
The lack of funding for energy research is a major problem, and the
Commission will present a Communication on financing low carbon
technologies at the end of 2008. This will investigate resource needs
and set out possible ways to leverage more investment from a range of
sources.
Progress on the initiatives set out in the new action plan will be
reviewed at a European Energy Technology Summit which will be held in
2009.
Commenting on the plan, the European Renewable Energy Council
(EREC) welcomed the idea of the European Industrial Initiatives, but
expressed its regret that these will focus largely on electricity and
transport. 'The sector of heating and cooling is not addressed
accordingly while it represents approximately half of the EU's final
energy consumption,' said EREC Policy Director Oliver Schäfer.
Meanwhile Greenpeace criticised the plan for its support for fossil
fuel and nuclear energy. 'Under the umbrella of 'low-carbon'
technologies, the plan fails to distinguish between the real solutions
to the climate crisis, renewable energy and energy efficiency
technologies, and expensive technologies that either bear an
unacceptable environmental cost, like nuclear energy, or that are mere
distractions, like carbon capture and storage,' said Frauke Thies,
Greenpeace's energy expert.
Source: Community R&D Information Service (CORDIS)