President Barroso's Energy Policy
Press release, 10/03/06

This week the European Commission published its Green Paper on secure, competitive and sustainable energy for Europe. This has been heavily reported in all European media. It reinforces the central role that "a real leap forward" on energy efficiency will play, in achieving each of these three objectives.

The Green Paper will be discussed in detail at the energy ministers meeting on March 14 and at the heads of government meeting on March 23/24. The process will culminate in formal proposals for new legislation under the German presidency next year.

The Paper emphasises that, "besides tackling climate change", action on energy efficiency will "contribute to security of energy supply, and help limit the EU's growing dependence on imported energy." It goes on to stress that "it could also create many high-quality jobs in Europe" (elsewhere it says "up to a million new jobs") and "maintain Europe's technological leadership in a rapidly growing global sector."

Under the heading Making More from Less, the pledge is made for Europe to become "the world's most energy-efficient region." It stresses that "an effective energy efficiency policy does not mean sacrificing comfort or convenience. Nor does it mean reducing competitiveness. In fact, an effective policy in this area means the opposite; making cost-effective investments in order to reduce the waste of energy, thereby increasing standards of living and saving money."

An Action Plan for energy efficiency is promised during 2006, including a "long-term energy efficiency campaign including efficiency in buildings, notably public buildings." This will serve as a "launch pad" to catalyse similar action worldwide, including "an international agreement on energy efficiency".

In consequence, the GreenPaper not only incorporates a strong bias towards concentrating almost asmuch upon managing energy demand as much as supply sources; but that in doing so, it heavily emphasises the importance of improving our buildings.