A day before the European Union heads into partnership talks with Russia, its major energy supplier to the east, Brussels has unveiled an strategy outlining how it hopes to wean the 27-country bloc from the fickle oil and gas dealer. "We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk into Europe's energy dependence crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said as he presented a detailed, multi-faceted scheme every bit as ambitious as the EU's very much related climate and energy package. "We must shield European citizens from the risk that external suppliers cannot honour their commitments," he said, without mentioning Russia. The EU's Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan, issued on Thursday (13 November) by the European Commission, primarily proposes a diversification of energy sources towards central Asia, the Mideast and Norway. The EU currently depends on foreign sources for almost 54 percent of its energy consumption, including 61 percent of its gas. According to the commission, this figure will climb to 84 percent by 2030.
A day before the European Union heads into partnership talks with Russia, its major energy supplier to the east, Brussels has unveiled an strategy outlining how it hopes to wean the 27-country bloc from the fickle oil and gas dealer.
"We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk into Europe's energy dependence crisis," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said as he presented a detailed, multi-faceted scheme every bit as ambitious as the EU's very much related climate and energy package.
"We must shield European citizens from the risk that external suppliers cannot honour their commitments," he said, without mentioning Russia.
The EU's Energy Security and Solidarity Action Plan, issued on Thursday (13 November) by the European Commission, primarily proposes a diversification of energy sources towards central Asia, the Mideast and Norway.
The EU currently depends on foreign sources for almost 54 percent of its energy consumption, including 61 percent of its gas. According to the commission, this figure will climb to 84 percent by 2030.
How about levelling the playing field by matching costs across transport alternatives to encourage the use of the best and discourage the use of the worst ? Rather than driving around in your chauffeur driven fleet of luxury mobiles, how's about using the bus ? How about using an electric bus ? How about prioritizing all sorts of things that make things better instead of throwing subsidies around at industries and ideas that make things worse ?
that or STFU. Cos credibility is hard to come by when you keep doing what you're doing. keep to the Fen Causeway
But I won't believe anything until they assign a budget.
I've been working with the local Finnish office of Natural Interest. They have developed a piece of software containing an enormous database of sources for energy consumption - everything from a plugged in but unused phone charger, to a Supertanker. Using the software they can calculate the carbon footprint of companies, organizations, events, buildings etc. You can't be me, I'm taken
That's the media's read, not the actual content of the document, which is a lot more focused on demand-side policies, energy efficiency and savings than is made out (of course, Barroso's comments, as quoted, don't help). In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
"We will not stand idly by while we sleep walk
aah, astral projection...
i always knew barrozo was an Enlightened One, master of spacetime! ~Government budget deficits are not nearly as dangerous as the deficits we have created in vital and complex natural systems.~ Naomi Klein.
