Promoting sustainable energy regions

EU Presidency background paper on "Forest Diversity as a Challenge and Opportunity for Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation".

In the context of the Informal Meeting of Environment Ministers that took place in Brdo from 11 to 13 April 2008, the Slovene Presidency of the EU released a paper on the need to make progress in deploying criteria for the sustainable use of forest biomass in Europe and to promote forest biodiversity as an important issue
in environmental sustainability.

This document addressed three major questions:

1. Greater synergies between climate change and biodiversity policies are very important for securing co-benefits. What is an appropriate EU follow-up to these issues, particularly in the context of adaptation to climate change?
 
2. Would increased utilisation of wood for energy move us away from multi-purpose forest management? What would be the implications?
 
3. Is the production of second-generation biofuels from forest biomass possible without endangering biodiversity? 

The background paper is available here.

For a territorial vision of bioenergies

The European Countryside Movement has recently adopted a position "For a territorial vision of bioenergies", available below.

• 

The EAST-GSR project: Promoting a quality approach for large-scale solar thermal systems

The EAST-GSR project, co-financed by the European Commission in the framework of the ALTENER Programme, aims at supporting the emergence of a sustainable solar thermal market in Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, taking advantage of the Guaranteed Solar Results (GSR) quality approach.

The project has come to the end of the first phase which included monitoring existing methodologies and adapting the GSR quality approach to the national specificities. The partners will now focus on promoting and demonstrating the effectiveness of the methodology. Local authorities are particularly targeted since the GRS system is best suited for large solar installations most often available in public buildings (social housing, hospital, sports centres, etc.)

• 

• 

• Call for proposal under the Intelligent Energy Europe Programme
  The European Commission has published on 12 March 2008 the new Call for Proposal under the new IIE Programme. Deadline for application is 26 June 2008.