Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-02-14-Speech-2-059"
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"en.20060214.6.2-059"2
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".
Mr President, I would like to thank Mrs Rothe for her work and her very strong commitment to renewable energy. My services have already started to prepare an impact assessment on an action in favour of heating and cooling from renewable energy sources. There is no doubt that the very complete and balanced report presented by Mrs Rothe will be very useful to the Commission when preparing action in this new field.
The international energy situation, our strong dependency on imports and the fight against climate change remind us of the urgent need to address the issues related to renewable energies. As you know, the Commission intends to adopt a Green Paper on a secure, sustainable and competitive energy policy on 8 March. Whatever you have seen to date, it is not the Green Paper. The Green Paper will be adopted on 8 March by the whole college, and there will be no backtracking from energy efficiency and from renewable energies. It will also show that all these measures are necessary to build security of supply, to fight climate change and to achieve environmental objectives, as well as to increase competitiveness. We will strive to achieve a balanced approach, but that does not mean backtracking; that is clearly not the way we would like to present it. However, there is still some time before the Commission completes its work on this Green Paper.
Since 1997, the European Union has been working towards the objective of 12% of renewable energy balance by 2010 but, to date, we have achieved only half of that goal. While we now have legislation on the promotion of electricity generation from renewable energy and on the promotion of biofuels, the production of heating and cooling from renewable energy – the third pillar of the renewable energy portfolio – lacks a specific strategy. Without a vigorous development of renewable energy in the sector of heating and cooling, the overall objective of 12% renewable energy by 2010 will not be achieved.
Promoting heating and cooling from renewable energy will contribute to a number of important objectives: it will reduce our external energy dependency, it will reduce greenhouse gas emissions and it will create a European industry and promote local employment. It will therefore help us make progress towards the goals of the Lisbon strategy.
I would like to react to some of the issues raised by Mrs Rothe’s report. I agree that we should take practical steps to promote heating and cooling from renewable energy more vigorously. I can promise you that we will work hard to table a legislative proposal as quickly as possible and certainly before the end of this year, since that is already in the 2006 work programme. However, there is a need to take a different approach from earlier directives, because the key problems lie in market confidence and attitudes rather than costs.
Subsidiarity is another key issue. By nature, all these energies are decentralised and will, therefore, have to be implemented at local level. We have to tailor our legislation to take account of this.
Beyond a legislative instrument, it might be interesting to evaluate what progress could be made through standardisation. I am convinced that we should set the scene for industry to develop a market for this type of equipment.
Mrs Rothe’s report contributes to the objectives of the European energy policy, and I very much welcome it."@en1
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