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Date: 19-21 October
The European Future Energy Forum is the younger relative of the World Future Energy Summit – the energy ‘Davos’ held annually in Abu Dhabi. This event will stage a global forum of leadership coming together to discuss key issues around sustainable and alternative energy solutions and technologies.
Location: ExCeL, London
Website: www.EuropeanFutureEnergyForum.com
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Source: GovNet
A member of the Comment:Visions team attended the GovNet Communication’s Science and Innovation 2010 Conference at the Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre in Westminster, London on 16 June.
The theme of the event was the need to address the way the UK supports its science and technology talent and turning the support into economic growth. Representatives from all over the industry attended the conference—including businesspeople, academics, researchers, and individuals in the public service.
Issues discussed in both panel presentations and seminars included:
David Kennedy, CEO of the Committee on Climate Change addressed the need to use science and innovation to create a low carbon economy. It is completely possible for the UK (and humans in general) to keep the same lifestyle we have now but lower carbon emissions, he said.
Kennedy stressed that people cannot wait for governments to act, citing COP-15 as “disappointing” that a more concrete and aggressive agreement wasn’t reached. However, he did say that the UK is making progress in government with the Climate Change Act of 2008 which created his committee and set a goal of 80 percent reduction in emissions by 2050.
“We need to invest in the right technologies,” Kennedy said, challenging science and technology leaders to work toward the emissions reduction goal and create jobs in the process. According to Kennedy, technologies such as electric and hydrogen cars, nuclear energy, clean coal, carbon capture and storage, and the many renewables need to be fine tuned and made available for mass distribution. He also suggested a need for more research and development in agriculture, as that makes up for a large part of carbon emissions all over the world.
The Committee on Climate Change will be presenting a report to Parliament with suggestions for new policies, such as a mandate for electric car battery charging stations, the phasing out of fossil fuels (for both environmental and security purposes) and more funding for innovation in the environmental science and technology realm.
– Eva Posner
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We are in Freiburg, a city of around 220,000 people, a city which committed itself to green energy 20 years ago. What do the city fathers think will be the future of energy in the next 20 years? Freiburg has already reduced its GHG emissions by a substantial amount. Freiburg encourages the use of solar and methane gas which generates base load electricity (which is on all the time). The suburb of Vauban is vehicle free, people willingly have given up their cars for bicycles. How could Freiburg become a model of energy efficiency that every city in the world can learn from.
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The great task of the 20th Century was the creation of industrial might, the 21st Century’s challenge is climate change.
Renewable energy’s contribution to our energy creation must grow, we are told, because we must reduce emissions of
greenhouse gases, or risk a climate catastrophe. And yet, we expect to have electricity available all the time
which renewable energy sources do not provide. What then will we rely on to provide base load power?
The next 20 years are critical in establishing a new energy mix that will provide constant electricity and still reduce emissions.
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The issue: The COP15 conference was widely seen as a setback for the EU. The agreement that was reached fell short of the global deal to replace the Kyoto protocol that the EU had sought.
What lessons should the EU draw from Copenhagen? Can the EU still be a driving force in global climate politics? Should the EU continue to push for a global agreement, or should it consider other options, such as bilateral agreements? Should it even take unilateral action, as advocated by some European stakeholders, and increase its emissions reduction target from 20% to 30% without waiting for the US and China to follow? Is a global deal still possible, and when might it be reached?
These are just some of the questions that Comment:Visions invites you to debate with a panel of senior EU decision-makers and stakeholders.
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The Earth’s atmosphere is the result of billions of years of geological activity and interaction with living organisms. Until recently, the stability of its composition has been something we have taken for granted.
The climate change conference in Copenhagen ended without a binding global agreement on curbing greenhouse gas emissions.
So, if governments cannot agree on measures to mitigate climate change, who then will provide the incentives and initiatives and perhaps more importantly the finances, that are needed? A growing number of leaders are beginning to look to the private sector to provide solutions. With regard to climate change, is it business to the rescue?
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As nations gather to seek an agreement on solving climate change, many are working behind the scenes to create the innovations and protocols that will form the foundation of a new, emission-free society. The fossil fuels that are greatest source of greenhouse gas emissions also provide the majority of the energy that we rely on. Is it possible to create new clean sources of energy and a business environment that will help transform our planet without compromising our way of life?
At the beginning of the year, Euronews began a journey, travelling throughout Europe, seeking out scientists, engineers, researchers and entrepreneurs for their opinions. At the same time, European Voice held regular debates inviting delegates from politics, industry, government and science to take part in finding answers to the burning questions that confront us. Visions of Future Energy is a selection of the opinions expressed in the television programmes.
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The emission of greenhouse gases has been the heart of the matter in environmental discourse throughout its growth and development. For as long as the science has told us that the levels of greenhouse gases in the earth atmosphere are damaging the planet, political attempts to reach agreement on a reduction of emissions have been ongoing.
In this month’s Comment Visions we travel to Norway to talk to a man whose career has involved studying the changing nature of our planet. Dr Pal Prestud is an ecologist and serves as the Director of the Centre for Climate and Environmental Research in Oslo. His work has focused on the Polar Regions, which have acted as an early warning system for the sort of climatic changes greenhouse gases are driving.
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For twenty five years, as economies have grown, technology has developed and resources dwindled, Professor Enzo Tiezzi has been a consistent voice of criticism of the prevailing industrial and economic models.
In this month’s Comment Visions we travel to Italy to meet with Professor Tiezzi and get his views on the energy debate within the wider context of his work – the study of sustainability. A champion of the idea of sustainability across different fields and disciplines, Professor Tiezzi has seen his work shift from under-regarded research on the margins of the debate to a central theme in our search for solutions to a global issue.
In this fascinating interview Professor Tiezzi talks about the need for an economic model that pays more heed to the laws of nature and explains the difference between development and growth and the significance of this difference as regards sustainability.
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The philosophical and political quest for peace between nations states dates back as far as Immanuel Kant’s hugely influential 1795 essay Perpetual Peace. However, over the last two centuries dramatically destructive wars have again and again undermined the Kantian ideal.
Dr Stein Tonnesson is Director of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo, Norway. A historian whose PhD research focused on the causes of the 1945 Vietnamese revolution, he sees the increasing scarcity of fossil fuels as a potential catalyst of insecurity in the global arena. Warning that nations pursuing narrow national solutions to the crisis based on their own self interest will ‘envenomate the international climate’ he is nevertheless hopeful that co-operation at a global level is possible.
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