EU efficiency green paper
and action plan
eceee welcomes the European Commission's new focus on energy efficiency
The European Energy Commissioner Andris Pielbags presented an ambitious Green Paper on Energy Efficiency 22 June 2005, entitled Doing More With Less. During the autumn 2005 the Commission has organised a public consultation along the 25 questions posed in the Green Paper, and the consultation is now finalized.
eceee input to the process
eceee welcomes the Green Paper on Energy Efficiency or “Doing More with Less”. Our response has been developed in consultation with our members but should not be taken as representing the views of the individual members.
We concur with the Commission that energy efficiency is an important energy policy which satisfies all the key policy goals of:
Increasing the competitiveness of EU businesses
Providing a highly cost effective way of tackling the environmental impact of energy use including the emission of carbon dioxide
Increasing the level of energy security within the EU and
Providing affordable energy services for the most disadvantaged in society.
The key policies to deliver all the benefits which energy efficiency can unlock are:
Using the tax system to encourage people to take action on energy efficiency
Outlawing energy inefficient products
Helping businesses to 'green' consumer markets
Supporting organisations that deliver change at a local level
Providing leadership from EU and national governments
In the immediate short term, we believe the priority for the Commission should be to maximise the benefits available from the existing directives and to speed up the introduction of the new directive on end use energy efficiency and energy services.
In particular, encouraging Member States to ensure that the energy performance in buildings directive is enforced and to begin the debate about extending their directive to cover more buildings than is currently the situation will be crucial.
Within the framework directive on labelling, it is important to update and strengthen the existing labels and to extend the range of appliances which are covered. With the existing eco-design directive it is important to bring forward concrete proposals and actions to further extend the coverage of appliances and particularly standby equipment.
Looking longer term, we believe that the EU will need to look beyond technical energy efficiency measures and address the challenging issue of curbing consumer demand for energy services in a politically acceptable fashion.
Download the full eceee response (13 January 2005).
eceee participation in the Amsterdam Forum
eceee has been invited as one of very few NGOs to participate in the Commission's Sustainable Energy Forum, the so-called Amsterdam Forum. This Forum is involved in the Action Plan and other measures to follow the Green Paper.
Informal web discussions
Several webconferences are organised by the European Copper Institute in cooperation with the WWF's European Policy Office (branded under the European Energy Conservation Alliance. Read more and sign up.
Read more about the green paper
Link to the European Commission's energy efficiency web pages (download Green Paper, press releases etc).
Track official EU documents on the green paper in the Prelex database.
Lisbon makeover for EU energy efficiency paper (eceee news 27-06-2005).
Responses to the green paper
General overview of written comments by Member States