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May 8, 2009
One of the few good pieces of news in the current economic crisis (maybe the only one) is that oil prices have gone from the 147$ a barrel of July 2008 more than 100$ down to less than $50 a barrel on the international markets. However, in the last days we have seen oil prises rising and reaching the price of $58 a barrel for the first time in nearly six months. Nevertheless low oil prices are also good news for gas, since gas prices are normally linked to those of oil. If we remember the difficulties that European fishermen and truck drivers had last year we can imagine what their problems with be if in the middle of an economic crisis they had to deal as well with prices over 100% a barrel.
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April 30, 2009
“It doesn’t make any sense for people to sit back and whine and complain about the economy slowing down. We have to be part of the solution and Green technology has a huge potential for that”. The quote does not belong to a bearded German environmentalist but the Governor of California and former actor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Europe has always believed that renewable green energies were our business and that we have no lessons to learn from our transatlantic neighbours. At this point in time, the European Union is still the global leader in renewable energies and energy efficiency. But places like California have woken up and realised that with fossil fuels being more scarce and expensive and climate change coming high on the agenda, …
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April 17, 2009
Probably the worst effect of the current economic crisis is the loss of jobs. To get out of the crisis we need to invest in sectors that generate economic growth and create employment. Which are these sectors in the energy field? Any investment in energy, from new generation facilities, to transport or distribution networks, storage facilities or research is able to generate a lot of jobs both directly and indirectly. This is the reason why, the European Recovery Plan wants to devote more than 3,7 billion € in new energy infrastructures, from gas interconnections, to Carbon Capture and Storage projects.
However, there are two sectors that I think can play a particularly positive contribution in job creation: renewables and energy efficiency. I have recently read a …
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February 20, 2009
You probably have been reading a lot of terrible things about biofuels and the negative impact that they have had on food prices and CO2 emissions. Therefore I wanted to see with my own eyes how biofuels are produced in the country that probably produce the most in the world, Brazil. Seven million Brazilian cars run with flexi fuel systems that allow the driver to choose whether they want to run on gasoline or on alcohol. Many chose one or the other based on environmental reasons, however many just take bioethanol for economic reasons. With such an alternative, Brazilian consumers did not suffer from the recent oil crisis while the rest of the world did.
So, bioethanol is a great alternative to oil consumption …
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September 26, 2008
If you ask me to resume in three points security of supply policy I would say: energy efficiency, dialogue with main stakeholders and diversification. I think the first two points do not need much explanation: the less we consume, the less dependent the EU will be on foreign suppliers, but even if we save a lot of energy, we will continue to work with a handful of traditional suppliers (Russia, Norway, Algeria, OPEC) and transit countries (Ukraine, Turkey, Georgia) with whom both parties are interested in having good relations. But what does diversification really mean?
First of all, it means alternative energy sources. Our energy mix is too dependent on fossil fuels. The huge risks of climate change show how important it is that we move towards a low-carbon energy sources. Our 20% renewables target is indeed an effort towards diversification. The more energy we are capable of producing in Europe …
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June 21, 2008
I’m writing this blog entry a few hours after the European Council and few hours before taking a plane to
Saudi Arabia for a meeting of oil producing and consuming countries. Both summits have in common the subject of discussion: high oil prices. This is no surprise. The high prices of oil and food are dominating the global agenda and are a cause of concern not only for fishermen or truck drivers, but also for everybody else, including oil producing countries.
For Europe the priority now is helping the most vulnerable consumers. The Council conclusions state very clearly that measures can be considered to alleviate the impact of higher oil and gas prices on the poorer sections of the population. Nevertheless, Heads of State and Government make clear that these measures “should remain short term and targeted”. Basically what the Heads of State and Government agreed, is that this new oil shock …
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June 6, 2008
Last Tuesday I was a witness of a very sad episode. Belgian riot police employed force against a group of French and Italian fishermen marching to the European quarter to protest violently against high price of fuel. A car crash occurred as a consequence of the riots. The frustration of the demonstration is easy to understand, but certainly demonstrations and street fights are not the answer to this problem. Oil prices are high and will go higher. No demonstration can change that.
In the past, periods of relatively expensive crude, were followed by periods of cheap oil due to temporary factors like the first Gulf war. Currently, as well, there are temporary factors that are influencing oil prices, like the boom in commodities markets, geopolitical situation in several key producing areas, the wakening of the dollar or the turmoil in global financial markets.
However, the real drivers of oil price escalade …
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May 16, 2008
I’m sure you have all heard about the “20-20-20 by 2020″ commitment by the European Council, as an essential step on the road to our ultimate goal: to reach a shared vision on reducing global emissions by at least 50% below 1990 levels by 2050. Nothing less will do if we are to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels. This objective is the basic driver of our policies.
In this context, energy efficiency, renewables and sustainable biofuels have all a very important and growing contribution to make for a sustainable energy policy, as we have seen in previous entries of this blog. However, for the production of base-load energy at competitive prices, nuclear energy is currently the main low-carbon source in many EU Member States. For that and different other reasons, we are witnessing recently a renewed interest for nuclear energy, both in Europe and globally, and this renewed …
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April 11, 2008
Blogs are supposed to be fairly informal and spontaneous. Readers won’t mind, I hope, if I don’t do as promised last time - and give details of energy efficiency legislative proposals, but talk about one of my activities this week. I will definitely come back to this in one of my future entries.
On Tuesday, 8 April, I visited the European Agency for Competitiveness and Innovation in
Brussels. I was delighted to learn that so much good work and so many good projects were being undertaken related to the Commission’s policy priorities of sustainable energy, growth and jobs. From initially having a renewable energy and energy-efficiency brief, the Agency is rapidly expanding its work to cover also eco-innovation, the Marco Polo transport programme and the new Enterprise Europe Network to support small and medium sized businesses.
What …
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March 28, 2008
I promised in my last entry that this week I would address the question of biofuels and food production, which according to many of your comments, is very much at the core of the biofuels debate. Before getting down to business, I would like to thank you for your comments. I see that many of you don’t share my point of view in this issue, and I respect this. At the same time, I see that you have read my comments and provide constructive replies. Before getting on to the food debate, I will briefly react to some of the comments.Quite a number of you argue in favor of cutting energy consumption, punishing car producers and motorists, switching from cars to bikes and generally being less materialistic. I agree that a radical change in consumer behavior is needed if we want Europe to be more energy efficient. At the same …
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