EUFORES 14th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency

10 & 11 October 2014

IPM14 was organised in close cooperation with the Portuguese Parliament, hosted by the Committee on Environment, Territorial Planning and Local Government and the Committee on Economics and Public Works.

Friday morning of the conference was dedicated entirely to the discussion of energy efficiency. This started with a welcome by conference chair Jan Geiss, EUFORES Secretary General, and a short but inspirational speech by Claude Turmes, MEP and EUFORES President. In his speech, Mr. Turmes highlighted the important timing of the conference, just two weeks prior to the EU Council meeting where the final decision on the future climate and energy policy framework is to be discussed.

The opening was followed by multiple expert presentations from various sectors (a scientific institute, the European Commission, the private sector, a think tank and a National Agency), together covering the different outlooks on energy efficiency. Thereafter, the speakers were invited to a panel debate, where they were joined by Morten Helveg-Petersen, a Member of the European Parliament, and Oliver Krischer, a Member of the German Parliament, in order to bring in the Parliamentary voices. To further stimulate discussion, at lunch, a World Café with a walking lunch was organised with experts on diverse energy efficiency related speaking topics for those curious of mind to explore.

From Friday afternoon to Saturday afternoon, the renewable energy section of the conference took place. This part of the IPM was held in the Parliament of Portugal and started with several rousing welcome speeches from Claude Turmes and the conference hosts, Pedro Pinto, Chair of the Committee on Economics and Public Works, and Fernando Marques, Vice Chair of the Committee on Environment, Territorial Planning and Local Government. Subsequently, Jorge Moreira da Silva, Portuguese Minister of Environment, Territorial Planning and Energy, took the floor. Minister Moreira da Silva stressed the need for  the discussion of four targets for 2030, in light of the upcoming EU Climate Summit, namely targets for renewables, energy efficiency, greenhouse gas emission reduction and interconnectors. Shortly thereafter, an intense debate took place on how the EU should take the chance to display an act of leadership with the upcoming 2030 energy and climate package discussions - an act which would lead to many benefits for the EU, including investor and energy security. The last part of the afternoon was divided into 2 regional workshops, a South-Western and Central European workshop focused on interconnections and a Baltics and South-Eastern European workshop focused on energy security. 

The Saturday morning session was dedicated to renewable energy deployment and infrastructure. Here interesting presentations took place about regional and structural funds, the Portuguese renewables business case and EU Member State renewables trajectory to 2020. IPM14 was closed with a Wolrd Café session on expect roundtables on the RES electricity, RES heating and cooling, RES in transport, barriers to RES and RES connected to structural funds.

This 14th Inter-Parliamentary Meeting was attended by around 130 participants, of which over two thirds came from national and the European parliaments, active in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Members of Parliament from 23 EU Member States and 2 Candidate Countries were represented. Other participants of this 'upon invitation only' based conference, included representatives from the Portuguese government, the European Commission and selected scientific and industry representatives.

 

The IPM14 programme is available here:

Participation is upon invitation only.

 

Speaker Presentations

Didier Houssin, Director, Sustainable Energy Policy and Technology, International Energy Agency

Lara Noivo Fernandes, Head of Government & Public Affairs, Phililps Iberia

Livia Tirone, Architect, Portugal

Natalia Gonzales Hereza, Director, Energy Agency Andalusia, Spain

Mathieu Fichter, DG Regional Policy, European Commission

Joao Manso Neto, CEO, EDP Renewables

Jan Benjamin Spitzley, Deputy Head of Policy Department, eclareon (please click here for the interactive link to the presentation)

 

IPM14 Pictures

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