european_commission_headquarters

EU plans binding Energy Efficiency Targets

October 28, 2009

The proposal for the new Energy Efficiency Plan sets binding energy efficiency targets for Member States. The draft, entitled “7 Measures for 2 Million New EU Jobs”, aims to simplify the 2006 Efficiency Action Plan, by focusing on a  range of binding and effective measures. It also acknowledges that the member States won’t be able to achieve the 20% goal of cut energy usage set for 2020, but only 11%. In particular it aims at helping the European Union cutting carbon dioxide emissions and reducing the tens of billions of euros channelled overseas each year for oil and gas imports. For that purpose, the draft introduces mandatory energy-saving obligations on member states ”in line” with the EU’s original goal of using 20% less energy in 2020 while suggesting that the targets could be either sector-specific, potentially limited to buildings, or cover all aspects of the economy. The other important measure in the draft is the proposition of refurbishing 15 million buildings by 2020. Insulating  millions of existing buildings and retro-fitting them with double glazing and appliances  would save Europe 66 million tonnes of CO2, while creating 300,000 direct and 1.1 million indirect jobs each year, it says. The draft does not earmark any money for the project, only referring to support [...]

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Renewal of the European Commission

October 26, 2009

Following the re-election of José Manuel Barroso at the head of the European Commission for the next five years on, September 16 by the EU Parliament, the outline of the new Commission is excepted to be established at the end of October. However, sources in the European Commission indicated that the 27 commissioners may stay on as “caretakers” until the end of the year because of possible delays in ratifying the Lisbon Treaty in the Czech Senate.  Below a short status update on the relevant Directorates General (DG) for hydrogen and fuel cell stakeholders. Enterprise and Industry Günter Verheugen (PES/Germany) will  retire as Industry Commissioner and another German MEP, Günther Oettinger will be at the head of the DG ENTR. The current minister-president of Baden-Württemberg is a surprising choice as he had not been thought to be among the leading candidates for the post and he’s not recognized at the international nor European the level. Oettinger who has a law and economic background and a member of the governing Christian Democrats (CDU), is regarded is as an expert on tax policy. Regional Development In September 15, three new commissioners have been temporary nominated until this autumn, as their predecessors have been elected [...]

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The EC and 22 world leaders explore ways for the viability of Carbon Capture and Storage

October 15, 2009

The European Commission, along with leaders from 22 world countries, explored on 13 October 2009, the best ways to accelerate the commercialisation of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) at the 3rd Ministerial Meeting of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum (CSLF), an international climate change initiative focussed on the development of improved, cost-effective technologies for the separation and capture of carbon dioxide, its transport and long-term safe storage. “Public authorities must continue to support promoting the development and deployment of CCS technologies if we want to be successful in fighting climate change. However, it is also time for significant private sector investments in order to commercialise demonstration projects and bring CCS technologies to the level of economic feasibility”, said Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The Forum adopted a Ministerial Declaration elaborating on project support, knowledge sharing, capacity building and other priorities of the CSLF. The actions of the Forum will be integrated in the global energy and climate agenda including the process towards the UN Framework Convention for Climate Change. The European Union has already developed a comprehensive package of legal, financial and industrial support elements designed in successive initiatives approved since December 2007 by the European Council. Firstly, the CCS Directive [...]

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SETIS

EU launches online Strategic Energy Technologies (SET-Plan) Information System

October 8, 2009

The European Commission recently launched an online Strategic Energy Technologies (SET-Plan) Information System, “SETIS”, which provides the latest research results on the status, forecasts and R&D investment figures for low-carbon technologies. It underpins the effective strategic planning, conception and implementation of EU energy technology policy and serves notably to the implementation of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET Plan). SETIS assesses and monitors those technologies that have a significant potential to help Europe meet its energy and climate change targets, such as wind power, solar power, CCS or bioenergy. The Information System offers interactive tools to compare the maximum potential and energy production costs foreseen for the different technologies over time. Scientific and market analyses are fed into the system by the SETIS community, led by the European Commission through its Joint Research Centre (JRC), working in close collaboration with other Commission services, EU Member States and European stakeholders in industry, research and finance. The analyses cover in particular the low-carbon technologies identified by the SET-Plan and proposed as European Industrial Initiatives (wind, photovoltaics, concentrating solar power, bioenergy, carbon dioxide capture and storage -CCS-, smart grids, nuclear fission), two ongoing Initiatives (fuel cell and hydrogen and nuclear fusion) as well [...]

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