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STRASBOURG, France, June 21, 2006 (Refocus
Weekly)
The European Parliament will dedicate two-thirds
of its research budget for non-nuclear energy to renewables and
energy efficiency.
Members of the EP voted to spend Euro 50 billion under the
European Union’s Seventh Framework Program for Research (FP7) that
will run from 2007 to 2013. The program will consist of four
specific programs (Cooperation, Ideas, People, Capacities) to cover
a number of thematic areas, including energy, environment (including
climate change), health, agriculture, information technologies,
nanosciences, transport, socio-economic sciences, security and
space.
At its plenary session in Strasbourg, Parliament passed an amendment
to bring the budget into line with the agreement on the financial
perspective, and the seven-year program will have a budget of Euro
50,521 million compared with the Euro 72,726 million originally
proposed by the Commission. This is a substantial increase with the
previous program (FP6) from 2002 to 2006, which had a budget of Euro
16,279 million.
The areas of energy and health were identified as priorities for
Parliament, with energy to receive a budget of Euro 2,415 million,
of which two-thirds will go to research conducted under the three
renewable energy activities and energy efficiency and savings.
In a parallel vote, Parliament allocated Euro 4 billion to nuclear
research and training activities under the European Atomic Energy
Community Treaty (Euratom), and a separate budget for nuclear
research and training from 2007 to 2011 will be Euro 2,751 million,
compared to the original EC proposal of Euro 3,092 million.
The EU Council of Ministers is expected to give final approval to
the revised package at a meeting in July.
“The European Parliament’s vote reverses decades of unbalanced focus
on fossil fuel energy research,” says Christian Kjaer of the
European Wind Energy Association. “Europe is moving closer to a
European energy future based on known and predictable cost of
energy, derived from clean and indigenous energy sources free of all
the security, political, economic and environmental disadvantages
associated with the current energy supply structure.”
“In an era of energy uncertainty and a climate disaster waiting to
happen, the European Parliament has made a bold statement - that
renewables are a vital part of Europe’s future energy mix,” he adds.
“For the wind industry, the decision will contribute to further
progress of the technology and reduced cost, while maintaining
Europe’s leading position in the global market.”
The International Energy Agency says research has lead to cost
reductions of 40% for wind energy over the last 20 years, “so the
Parliament has taken a big step towards enabling wind energy to
reach cost parity with - and even to undercut - the cheapest
alternatives,” he adds. Under the Sixth Framework Program, wind
received only limited funding for research.
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