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The European
Parliament adopted a resolution based on the own-initiative report drafted by
Mechthild ROTHE (PES, DE) with recommendations to the Commission on
heating and cooling from renewable sources of energy.(Please see the
summary of 26/01/2006.) Under a rarely-used procedure (Rule 39 of
Parliament's Rules of Procedure), Parliament requested the Commission to
submit a legislative proposal on increasing the share of renewable energies
used in Europe for heating and cooling. Parliament
pointed out that directives to promote renewable sources of energy in the
fields of electricity and transport have resulted in, or boosted, sustainable
development in the Member States. Market developments in renewable energies
in the individual Member States, which vary enormously from one to another,
are due for the most part not to differences in potential, but rather to
different, and in some cases inadequate, political and legal framework
conditions. Parliament felt that the promotion of a renewable energy market
would help to achieve the new Lisbon objectives by increasing employment in
the Member States and by increasing the Member States' and the EU's research
and innovation effort. It noted that the use of waste heat from electricity
production processes or industrial processes and free cooling contribute to
reducing demand for conventional energy. Accordingly, Member States should
identify the potentials for utilisation of these resources, show how they
could be exploited more effectively, ensure legal clarity, better information
for the public and an increase in research efforts. Parliament set
out detailed recommendations on the content of the proposal. The main points
are as follows: - The
objective of the proposal requested is to evaluate and exploit economic
potential with the aim of increasing the share of renewable energies used in
heating and cooling in the EU from the present level of approximately 10% to
a realistic and ambitious figure of at least a double that by 2020. - The directive
is intended to set the framework conditions for national support schemes,
with due respect for the principle of subsidiarity and existing European
rules in the energy and environmental spheres. - Effective
national targets, which take into account current differences in the share of
renewable heating and cooling in the Member States and their regions and the
potential of each of the relevant technologies and associated analyses,
should contribute to reaching the EU target. - At the
latest one year after the entry into force of the directive, Member States
should be required to agree on action plans to attain the objectives on the
basis of their national potential and target for exploiting renewable sources
for heating and cooling. The Member States' action plans should be renewed
every three years and submitted to the Commission. - Parliament
made recommendations on dismantling administrative barriers and on national
support schemes. - Financial
incentives should, as a matter of principle, be provided by the Member
States, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity. Such support
schemes must comply with certain prescribed principles in attaining their
objective, such as limiting support in time and gradually reducing it. Where
renewable technologies had not yet achieved a high degree of market
penetration at competitive prices and development, Member States might
consider incentive mechanisms, such as tax advantages/derogations for RE
systems and associated heating and cooling networks and direct investment
aid. - Parliament
also outlined a number of accompanying measures which the Member States
should take: informing the public, inter alia by the publication of studies
on the benefits to consumers; encouraging the public sector to give priority
to heating and cooling from renewable energy sources as part of procurement
policy; and giving due importance to renewable energy technologies in
training. The EU, for its part, should encourage the use of the structural
and cohesion funds to support and promote renewable
energy for heating and cooling and ensure that eco-labels for heating and
cooling systems are developed at European level.
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