Today, a wide stakeholder coalition representing professional organisations and NGOs called on Commission President Barroso and Energy Commissioner Oettinger to direct financial assistance intended to support energy projects towards energy efficiency.

Background:

It is estimated that at least €115m of the „Community financial assistance to projects in the field of energy‟, adopted in support of the European Economic Recovery Plan early 2009, might remain unused. The coalition calls on the European Commission to use these funds to support the more aggressive use of existing technologies to achieve greater energy efficiency across Europe.

Significant energy savings will be required if the EU is to meet its challenging 20/20/20 and climate policy targets. According to recent analysis, achieving 20% energy savings by 2020 would result in net savings of €107 billion per year by 2020, meaning over €600 per household. This would also reduce Europe’s dependency on energy imports by 20% and provide a unique opportunity to create at least one million new jobs.

On behalf of PU Europe, one of the signatories, Oliver Loebel commented, “If the 20% energy savings target is not met by 2020, although it is generally considered as the absolute minimum, the 2050 emission reduction targets will become completely out of reach. However, the political and financial measures in place today are insufficient if the EU wants to achieve its 20% savings target.”

The signatories of the call recommend that the European Commission allocates these unspent funds to support the diffusion of energy efficiency under a financial framework set up by the European Investment Bank. These financial schemes could play a critical role in triggering investments in energy efficiency whilst being an effective way to ensure that European taxpayers’ money is wisely spent.

The letter is available here.

For more details, please contact

PU Europe

Email: secretariat@pu-europe.eu Website: www.pu-europe.eu