Make Europe the most resource and energy efficient economy in the world!
Friends of the Earth Europe delivers policy advice to MEPs by bike
Brussels, 14 December 2006 - Friends of the Earth Europe today made a bicycle delivery of
the report "Factor X and the EU, how to make
Europe
the most resource and energy efficient Economy in the World - A guidebook to Policies and Legislative Initiatives within the European Union", to
members of the European Parliament's Environment Committee and
Industry, Research and Energy Committee.
The report says that increasing the EU's energy and resource efficiency would boost innovation, save billions on energy imports, create jobs, improve the environment, contribute substantially to saving the climate, increase security and improve the EU's competitiveness on a global scale.
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| Fouad Hamdan, Director of Friends of the Earth Europe, delivered today by bicycle the report to Members of the European Parliament in Brussels. |
The report identifies the policies needed to fully seize these opportunities. Some examples of these policies are:
- More than 10% of the total energy used in the EU could be saved by cost-effective measures in the buildings sector, if the necessary legal incentives are implemented
- Binding targets on car fuel-efficiency would not only help the environment but also boost innovation in one of Europe's most important industry sectors
- Setting more ambitious aims for the energy efficiency of electrical appliances and improved labelling could save substantial amounts of electricity
- EU funds and research programmes should be use much more targeted to boost eco-efficiency
The report also demonstrates why Friends of the Earth Europe supports the energy efficiency target proposed by the European Commission to reduce Europe's total primary energy consumption by at least 20 percent by 2020. However, the Energy Efficiency Action Plan falls short of proposing forward-looking legislation that would put Europe on track to meet the target. The Action Plan is also weak in the area of transport, a sector accounting for more than 30 percent of the EU's final energy demand.
The report was written by Dr. Stefan Giljum, Kai Schlegelmilch and Dr. Martin Rocholl, the chairman of Friends of the Earth Europe (FoEE), with the kind support of the Aachen Foundation. The Brussels European offices of Transport & Environment, CEE Bankwatch, Greenpeace, WWF, CAN-Europe, the European Environmental Bureau , Friends of the Earth Europe and several industry associations gave valuable input to this report.
Friends of the Earth Europe urges EU decision makers to put energy efficiency in the centre of the upcoming 'Strategic Energy Review' and the 'Action Plan on a common European energy policy'.
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