News

Brussels, 12 October 2010 – The European Commission’s “Innovation Union”, sets out a strategic approach to innovation, driven by the highest political level. The Innovation Union will focus Europe’s efforts and co-operation with third countries – on challenges like climate change, energy and food security, health and an ageing population. The Innovation Union is a “flagship” in…

Brussels, 2 September 2010 – The European Commission has published in July a second set of voluntary green public procurement (GPP) criteria for eight product groups to help authorities identify the greenest products when awarding public contracts. The first set of criteria for 10 product groups had been developed in 2008. The eight categories are…

According to the European entrepreneurs, EU’s approach to innovation policy is too focused on science and research, with little attention paid to business. Although innovation is one of the main EU’s concern related to competitiveness, some entrepreneurs say that the present approach is totally wrong.  Former Belgian entrepreneur of the year, Bart Van Coppenolle, says…

London, 17 June 2010 – Dong Energy, one of G!E’s members, has just opened a 172MW offshore wind farm in the Thames Estuary. Although operational since March, it was\ only formally inaugurated on June 16  by UK energy minister Charles Hendry who hailed the project as a forerunner for other large-scale offshore wind farms. “Our…

Brussels, 17 May 2010 – Two new reports released by the UN commission on sustainable development finds that recycling rates for specialty metals are worryingly low. Only 1% of these metals are recycled in electronic products compared with 50% for more common metals such as steel. The reports chart the growth in the use of…

Brussels, 14 April 2010 – The European Climate Foundation (ECF) has just released a major study on how the EU can achieve an 80% reduction in greenhouse gases by 2050. The report finds that decarbonisation of the energy sector is crucial to achieving this ambitious target. Such a move would have knock-on effects in both road…

Brussels, 17 March 2010 – The successor to the Lisbon strategy for growth and jobs has been issued by the EC in March 2010. The newly presented strategy sets EU targets for 2020, including energy and climate targets for the continent. The Europe 2020 Strategy is to guide the EU’s economy out of the financial crisis…

Madrid, 10 January 2010 –  The Spanish EU presidency, whose term started on January 1st 2010, has outlined a set of green priorities that are to be tackled during the coming 6 month period. While the economic crisis and the transitioning into the Lisbon treaty which has come into force are the main priorities of…

Beijing, 25 August 2009 – Nationwide feed-in tariff schemes for solar and wind have been announced in China, and are to be launched by the end of the year. For solar, the scheme is to cover utility scale plants, by offering them a support between US$0.16 and US$0.22 per kilowatt hour of electricity produced. Details of…

Brussels, 29 April 2009 – The objective of this study is to support the European Parliament’s ITRE Committee in its work on the EU’s industrial and energy policy and to give advice on the following issues: Why is the issue of resource scarcity back on the agenda?  What are the strategic conclusions for the EU? What…

Despite credit crunch, the solar photovoltaic industry is more than ever ready for further growth Speakers at EPIA’s 3rd International Conference on Solar Photovoltaic Investments confirmed that, like all industries, the solar photovoltaic (PV) sector has not been spared by the credit crunch. Medium to large scale PV plants are taking longer to be financed…

Oslo, 7 April 2009 – Norway’s finance ministry has announced plans to earmark NKr 20 billion (€2.3bn) from its sovereign wealth fund for a five-year investment programme in environmental technology and sustainable development projects. In addition, the government proposes “to initiate a broad study to assess how the challenges of climate change may affect the…