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European News
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Edited by Gunnar B. Olesen, OVE, INFORSE-Europe Coordinator
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EU’s Climate Dialogue with NGOs and Industry
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The EU Commission has launched the European Climate Change Program (ECCP), which includes 5 working groups involving industry and NGOs. The aim of the program is to prepare the 15 EU countries’ ratification of the Kyoto Protocol. The activities started in June of 2000 and will continue until May, 2001.
The Climate Network Europe is co-ordinating the NGO participation. INFORSE-Europe is involved in the working groups dealing with energy supply and energy demand, which cover renewable energy and energy conservation.
NGOs are invited to take part in the discussions of NGO proposals and of the positions being formulated by the working groups. Key issues will be how to maximise the use of renewable energy and energy efficiency in the EU. A meeting of NGOs is planned for the end of August in Brussels. The first NGO proposals will be presented immediately afterwards.
Information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/climat/home_en.htm
To be involved in NGO activities, contact INFORSE-Europe,
e-mail: ove@inforse.org .
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Internet Education Continues, Starts again in September
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Following the first DIERET (Distance Internet Education for Renewable Energy Technologies) course with 29 participants, INFORSE-Europe plans to run the course again in the fall of 2000. Applicants, in particular from NGOs in Central and Eastern Europe, are invited to apply. The course is intended to start in September. Participants of the course will receive material via e-mail and on a CD. They will be asked to do a number of exercises, and will receive a diploma certifying that they participated in the course.
Contact: INFORSE-Europe,
e-mail: bedi@bratislava.telecom.sk
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ECO-Forum Strategy Work- shop, September 14-16, Kiev
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The European ECO-Forum, a coalition of about 200 ECOs (Environmental Citizens’ Organisations) that follows the Environment for Europe process, will organise its strategy at its next meeting, to be held from September 14 to 16 in Kiev. On the agenda will be energy efficiency and nuclear energy, as well as common activities towards the Pan-European Environmental Ministers’ Meeting in Kiev in 2002. ECO’s that are not able to attend the meeting can join relevant email list(s). INFORSE-Europe co-ordinates the energy group of the ECO-forum.
More
information:
www.eco-forum.org, contact INFORSE-Europe (see back page), or the ECO-Forum secretariat in Moscow,
e-mail: velias@mail.ru
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Windforce10 for Europe September 25 - 27, Kassel
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INFORSE-Europe will present plans to cover at least 12% of Western Europe’s electricity demand with windpower by 2020. The presentation will be made at the conference “Windpower for the 21st Century”, September 25-27 in Kassel, Germany. The proposal will follow the Windforce10 proposal from November 1999, but will be more detailed regarding national distribution and costs.
The paper will be available at the INFORSE-Europe website at the time of the conference:
www.orgve.dk/inforse-europe/
Information: INFORSE-Europe (see back page) and WIP-Renewable Energies, www.wip-munich-de
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Actions Against Russian Nuclear Waste
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In the last week of July and the first week of August, 60+ representatives of NGOs and scientific organisations organised the ‘All-Russian Anti-nuclear Camp 2000’, near the Mayak plutonium producing and reprocessing plant at Chelyabinsk in the Ural.
The 60+ participants protested against plans to store imported radioactive waste at Mayak, and against the lack of official recognition of radioactive contamination of areas in and around the plant. The participants carried out peaceful protests at a central square in Chelyabinsk. The protest was brutally stopped by the police.
The participants also measured radioactivity levels as they travelled around the area. They found radioactive spots with more than 10 times the background level of radioactivity as far as 60 km from the plant.
More info: www.ecoline.ru/antinuclear/
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More Nuclear Power in Russia?
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At the end of May, MINATOM, the Russian ministry for nuclear energy, presented its new 50-year plan. It included plans for 23 new nuclear power plants to be built before 2020. The funding for the plants is not in place, but MINATOM also asked the Russian government to allow import of foreign nuclear waste, an activity that might give substantial funding to the Russian nuclear sector.
More info: www.ecoline.ru/antinuclear/
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OOA Closed
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The Danish Anti-nuclear organisation OOA, which was formed in 1974 as the first nationwide organisation in the Danish energy movement, decided to stop its activities by end of May, 2000. With no nuclear power being discussed in Denmark and with the Swedish Barsebäck nuclear power plant scheduled for closure, OOA’s activists felt that the primary mission of the organisation had been fulfilled, and that it was time to close. The website of OOA will be maintained and the “smiling sun” will be available through the WISE office in Amsterdam.
Information: www.ooa.dk
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Ukrainian Solar
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Among the many European news items received by Sustainable Energy News is this solar heating plant has just been installed by the Ukrainian company UkrHelioprom. The system is at a Ukrainian factory named “Oxygen”, and it provides hot water for the staff of the factory from April till October. It is made with locally produced solar collectors.
Contact, e-mail: ukrgelio@ikr.carrier.kiev.ua .
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