Europe promotes energy research for sustainable development
The European Commission has published a guide to the European Union's (EU) activities in the field of non-nuclear energy research for sustainable development. The guide sets out how the EU adopted its current position on energy research for sustainable development, highlighting how the Kyoto Summit - in 1997 - put energy consumption firmly onto the political agenda. The Kyoto Summit produced an international declaration on carbon dioxide emissions which aims to reduce the impact that burning fossil fuels has on the greenhouse effect. The publication details how the EU is coordinating its non-nuclear research efforts through the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) for Research, Technological development and Demonstration (RTD) within the thematic programme "Energy, environment and sustainable development". The guide also addresses a number of fundamental questions about EU research in this area, including: - What can EU Member States do? - How can technological research contribute? - Why research at EU level? It also includes a number of case studies to illustrate how EU-funded energy research helps to develop more affordable and cleaner energy-saving technologies.