Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2008-03-12-Speech-3-380"
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"en.20080312.25.3-380"2
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Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, over a year has passed since the publication of the Communication from the Commission ‘Mobilising public and private finance towards global access to climate-friendly, affordable and secure energy services: the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund’ (known as GEEREF).
The fundamental prerequisite for the funding of projects – and not only those connected with biomass or biofuels – will undoubtedly be respect for sustainability criteria, which will not be any less stringent than those laid down in various EU legislation. This will strengthen the relationship of trust that we need to establish with these countries, especially with a view to the global climate change agreement, which should be concluded by the end of 2009.
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Since then, there have been many developments, such as the Bali Agreement last December. As a result, this initiative now appears more important and timely. It is, then, the right moment to debate this report, and I note with satisfaction that the European Parliament is particularly positive about this new and innovative means of supporting energy efficiency and renewable energy projects.
Allow me, first of all, to explain why the Commission has proposed to use public subsidies in the global fund of business risk capital, even though Mr Turmes has already indicated the main points leading us to this decision and has also asked some questions. In fact, despite the continual progress observed in the utilisation of renewable energy sources, the total worldwide share of energy sources that they represent remains low.
It is also well known that improving energy efficiency can offer greater gains than setting up a new energy infrastructure. Nevertheless, with the investments being made worldwide in the energy efficiency sector, existing opportunities for improvement are not being fully utilised. The significant difficulties in finding private funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects are thus a major problem.
The reasons are complex and relate mainly to the lack of business risk capital. Business risk capital is required in developing countries, and in transitional economies it is estimated to amount to more than EUR 9 billion a year. This is much higher than the amount currently available. Although public subsidies have been increased in recent years, the total amount available is insufficient. Additional capital must be found; it is required in the energy sector until 2030. As a result, the search for private sector funding is vital.
However, the many years required for the repayment of investments in clean technologies hinder investors, especially in geographical regions deemed to be high-risk. For example, private investments in sub-Saharan Africa are very low; this is precisely why one of the objectives of GEEREF is to encourage investments in these regions. The amount to which Mr Turmes has referred is indicative, as it is a minimum to be invested in these regions.
A second problem that Mr Turmes has referred to is the scale of projects. For small-scale projects in remote countries, administrative and execution costs may be higher. As a result, international funding bodies are not prepared to fund such projects, particularly if their value is below EUR 10 million, as you have said.
This is precisely the aim of GEEREF: to overcome such obstacles in the way of small-scale investments. We will focus our efforts on projects such as these. The fund will attract private investors by using public resources to protect them from the risks I referred to earlier. To enable GEEREF to get up and running, the European Commission will commit approximately EUR 80 million from the current year until 2010. As you said earlier, with the additional commitments by the governments of Germany and Norway, we have exceeded EUR 100 million. We expect that additional business risk capital will be drawn from the private sector, amounting to at least EUR 300-500 million, or perhaps as much as EUR 1 billion, in the slightly longer term.
Mr President, I am pleased that in this report the European Parliament is supporting the creation of the Global Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Fund. I should like to thank the rapporteur, Mr Turmes, for his efforts, as well as Mr Wijkman and Mrs Korhola from the Committee on Development and the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety respectively, for their contributions. I think that this is an important and timely initiative that demonstrates that the EU is taking action and is determined to help developing countries to gain access to energy efficiency and renewable energy sources."@en1
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