This year we have good reason to expect that a rich range of events for EUSEW will be organised all over Europe. Thousands of organisations and individuals will participate in the EU Sustainable Energy Week (EUSEW) by hosting, attending or collaborating with an Energy Day. Energy Days may take different forms (conferences, open door events, presentations, exhibitions, performances, etc.) but they all have one thing in common: they promote, innovate, and enrich the debate about energy efficiency and renewable energy sources.
Sustainable Energy Week is an initiative of the European Commission that first took place in 2006. It is designed to spread best practices, inspire new ideas and build alliances to help meet the EU’s energy and climate goals. Beginning in 2006 with a single sustainable energy debate in Brussels, EUSEW’s participation has been increasing significantly since then. 73 events took place in 2008 while 328 events were organised in 2010. Last year, 720 activities took place across Europe.
by Stephane Bourgeois, Head of Regulatory Affairs, EWEA
It’s a long and winding road to a post 2020 EU energy policy. Europe faces a policy void after 2020 when the main pillars of EU energy policy – targets for renewable energy, emissions and energy efficiency – run out. At the moment only the Emissions Trading System is set to continue after 2020. What Europe needs if it is to continue increasing its share of renewable energy, with all the economic growth and jobs that can create (as well as reducing our fuel import bill and the obvious environmental and climate benefits), is to put in place for 2030 a policy that works: a legally binding renewable energy target.
But for the second time Poland has blocked Council conclusions on the 2050 Roadmap which is the EU’s attempt to begin to fill that policy void. Today the Polish prevented the Energy Ministers from reaching a formal agreement on the 2050 Energy roadmap, and this follows doing the same last year with Environment Ministers on the overall 2050 Low Carbon Economy Roadmap (which covers energy, transport and other sectors).
A solitary wind turbine stands before the eerie flashes of green Aurora Australis cloud in Antarctica, meanwhile another turbine faces a threateningly dark curved cloud sweeping in from the west – these are just two of the winning images of the Global Wind Day 2012 ‘Wind In Mind’ photo competition announced today.
Launched in May 2012, the ‘Wind In Mind’ photo competition invited budding and professional photographers alike to send their images of wind energy that depicted the emissions-free technology in new and inspiring ways.
People at EWEA and GWEC can’t wait for Friday: finally Global Wind Day will be here! Each of the over 200 events worldwide is a reason for us to be happy, but we are particularly excited to finally be able to reveal the winners of the Global Wind Day photo competition ‘Wind in Mind’ on 15 June.
The competition invited photographers to let their imaginations take the lead and capture wind energy technology in dramatic and innovative new ways. We have been overwhelmed by the interest, the number of submissions and the quality of the pictures. On 15 June the Brussels Global Wind Day events will start: a photo exhibition will be open on Place du Luxembourg, just in front of the European Parliament, in the heart of the European quarter. Thousands of people will see the winning photos along with information on wind energy. The exhibition runs until 29 June.
By Manuel Pueyo, EU Sustainable Energy Week
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