INFORSE-Europe Activities - 2001

DIERET (Distance Internet Education on Renewable Energy Technologies)
DIERET is a free internet-based course developed by INFORSE-Europe. During the period, requests were answered and the material was distributed.

INFORSE-EUROPE WEBSITE
The INFORSE-Europe website was updated regularly, including information on the Pan-European seminar and its proceedings, success-stories, and important links.

ENERGY PLANNING MODELS FOR NGOs
INFORSE-Europe provided assistance to interested members on how to make national and local sustainable energy plans. Information was made available on the website.

COLLECTION OF SUCCESS-STORIES AND SUSTAINABLE ENERGY DATA

INFORSE-Europe collected information on successes with sustainable energy and development of sustainable energy in European countries. Five new cases were included and they are now available on the INFORSE-Europe website. These are small hydro-power in Estonia, solar heating in a nature protection area in Czech Republic, straw-fired heating in Slovakia, new solar heating production in Romania, and wood-chip fired heating, also in Romania. This activity was a follow-up of the collection of success-stories from 1998.

PAN-EUROPEAN SUSTAINABLE ENERGY SEMINAR, September 2001 DENMARK
In co-operation with Climate Network Europe, CAN-CEE (Climate Action Network for Central and Eastern Europe), World Information Service on Energy, and OVE, INFORSE-Europe organised a Pan-European Sustainable Energy NGO Seminar & Tour in September, 2001 in Denmark. Proceedings of the event is available on the INFORSE-Europe website.

2001 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, FOLKECENTER, DENMARK
INFORSE-Europe also organised an Annual General Meeting September 21, 2001 at The Danish Folkecenter for Renewable Energy. For the Meeting, came representatives of 17 INFORSE-Europe member organisations.

COOPERATION WITH OTHER INFORSE REGIONS/VISION2050 AND RIO+10
INFORSE-Europe participated in the development of World Vision 2050 for phase out of fossil fuels and nuclear energy. INFORSE-Europe's input in the period was participation in the development of a presentation on Vision2050 that was given at the Rio-02 conference in Rio De Janeiro, January 2002.

COOPERATION WITH CAN CEE / PROJECT DEVELOPMENT
Joint projects of climate and sustainable energy projects for members of INFORSE-Europe and CAN-CEE were discussed.
Several Danish-CEE Cooperation projects were started, which were funded by the Danish Open Air Council’s Small Grants:
- Hungarian - Danish (Sustainable Energy Mobile exhibition, Magazine, Study Tour in Denmark)
- Ukrainian - Danish (Sustainable Energy Mobile exhibition, publishing a Magazine)
- Slovanian - Croatian - Danish (Sustainable Energy at the Kolpa river)
- Slovakian - Czech - Danish (Energy Auditing in the Tatra Mountains)

COOPERATION WITH OTHER NETWORKS
Continued co-operation with Climate Network Europe.

CD-ROM PUBLICATION
Preparation of INFORSE EUROPE CD ROM with material produced by INFORSE-
Europe such as the DIERET texts. The CD-Rom was made available for members.

Sustainable Energy News
INFORSE-Europe/OVE The Danish organisation for Renewable Energy hosted the editorial office of INFORSE’s newsletter “Sustainable Energy News”. It was published 4 times during the year.
Sustainable Energy News each time was printed in as a 16-page newsletter + the Annual Sustainable Energy Contact List of 800 organisations in 2 parts (12+16 pages) The issues were printed in 3000 copies and sent out to to members and contact organisations.

LOBBY ACTIVITIES

FOLLOW DEVELOPMENT IN EU
INFORSE-Europe continued to follow the development of EU’s energy policies. INFORSE-Europe has proposed a participant in the EU Commission’s energy and transport committee, and has made an informal comment to the preparation of the CHP directive.

INFORSE-Europe was invited to participate in the European Climate Change Program by Climate Action Network Europe. Following this, the Gunnar Boye Olesen, the co-ordinator from Denmark was invited to be rapporteur at the Conference on the European Climate Change Programme (ECCP): Next Steps for the ECCP, Brussels, 2 & 3 July 2001, organised by the EU Commission.

INFORSE-Europe continued to be represented by Gunnar Boye Olesen at meetings of the UN-ECE Working Groups on Environment, on Sustainable Energy, in Geneva.

EUROPEAN WIND CAMPAIGN
The European wind campaign was continued with final parts of the report on Russia. The results will be presented on website and in Sustainable Energy News.

European ECO-FORUM / Pan-European Energy Efficiency
INFORSE-Europe continued to co-ordinate the European ECO-Forum Working Group on Energy & Climate, in co-operation with Climate Network Europe.
Gunnar Boye Olesen participated in the meetings of the Energy Efficiency Working Group of the Energy Charter in Brussels, and in the ECO-Forum coordination meetings.

Funding
The activities were supported by Forum for Energy and Environment, a Danish NGO umbrella organisation. The Seminar was additionally funded by the Danish Open Air Council, Planenergi (Denmark), and the Swedish Acid Rain Secretariat.