PowerSwitch

Green Paper: A European Strategy for Sustainable, Competitive and Secure Energy

The European Commission has issued a Green Paper on Energy which puts forward a proposal for a European energy policy. The Green Paper identifies six key areas where it argues that action is necessary to address the challenges of the "new energy era". The fundamental questions focus on the desirability of a common European strategy for energy, and identifying the core principles of such a strategy.

The Green Paper identifies a number of trends which define what it terms "a new energy era". These include ageing infrastructure, increasing import dependency, geopolitical risks, increasing global energy demand, rising oil and gas prices, climate change, and an incomplete internal energy market. The Green Paper argues that these problems require a common European response.

The questions posed in the consultation fall under the following headings:

1. Competitiveness and the internal energy market
2. Diversification of the energy mix
3. Solidarity
4. Sustainable development
5. Innovation and technology
6. External policy

http://ec.europa.eu/energy/green-paper- ... dex_en.htm

There's an interesting quiz that you can do and send in. Some of the questions are quite hard. I thought that many of the questions were 'loaded'. There seemed to be an assumption of a 'business as usual' future behind the questions rather than focussing on how we can change the way we live to survive comfortably in a different future. Do have a go, folks, and tell us what you thought.

The quiz is here:
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms ... er&lang=en