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[06.12.05] Renewable
Energies for Heating and Cooling: Dinner Debate in the European Parliament in Bruxelles A meeting of relevant persons from politics, administration and industry was organized by EUFORES (the group of Members of Parliament interested in renewable energies) and EREC, the European Renewable Energy Council, in the restaurant of the European Parliament in Brussels. Mechthild Rothe, MEP from Germany and president of EUFORES, could welcome MEPs from different parties, officers from the European Commission, policy and energy experts, industry representatives, and others, including former MEP Eryl McNally, one of the key persons for support of renewable energies in the last decade. Among the MEPs present where some key actors for renewable energy, beside Mechthild Rothe (Germany) also Fiona Hall (UK), Peter Liese (Germany) and Claude Turmes (Luxembourg). The goal of the event was to show the importance of the still missing pillar in the renewable energy support activities in the EU, for the heating and cooling sector. A European Directive on Electricity from Renewable Energies exists since 2001, for the transport sector the biofuels directive is on its way, but for the largest energy consumption sector, heat, with almost 40 % of the total, no EU-wide support regulations are in place. Without the heating and cooling sector, the targets set for the European Union in the Kyoto-process, the "White Book" targets, and the target of 12.5 % of renewables in all energy supply by the year 2010 cannot be met; not to speak of the longer-term targets for 2020 (Turmes-report) and 2040. EGEC and the fellow EREC members call for a suitable directive of the European Union to increase the share of renewable energies in the heating and cooling sector. This had been underlined at the EGEC Business Seminar 2004 in Berlin, where on 6.4.2005 the relevant EREC-brochure had been presented, listing all the reasons and need for such a directive (download at: http://www.erec-renewables.org/documents/RES-H/EREC_RES-H.pdf ). At the diner debate in Brussels now the main speaker, Ole Pilgard, president of ESTIF and one of the directors of EREC, explained again the need to foster renewable sources for heating and cooling in order to achieve the targets. Three speakers from the associations for geothermal, solar thermal and biomass promoted the potential of their respective technologies, while the participants enjoyed a light but tasty dinner. A lively discussion followed, and in total the event was a clear signal to the MEPs to discuss favourably the draft initiative report on the need for such a directive. This draft report currently is in the relevant committee of the European Parliament, and will be for vote in the plenary early next year. It is also hoped that the representatives of the European Commission acknowledge that clear signal, and follow the Parliament report by submitting a draft directive on heating and cooling from renewable energy sources. At the day after the diner debate, Dec. 7, the European Commission already released a statement concerning the RES-Heat directive, in item 2.1 "Legislation on renewable energy in heating" of the EC Communication on the Biomass Action Plan: "This is the missing piece of the jigsaw, alongside existing directives covering electricity and transport. The Commission will work towards this legislation in 2006." |