EC Calls For €50bn Green Tech Investment

The European commission has said that governments and the private sector will need to invest around €50bn over the next ten years in technologies to help combat climate change if Europe is to remain competitive with other regions.

In a statement released this week, the EC outlined its “Investing in the development of low-carbon energy technologies” proposal which maintains that annual investment in low-carbon and clean-tech investment in Europe will have to be increased from around €3 to €8 billion.

“Up-grading investment in research in clean technologies is urgent if Europe is to make the road to Copenhagen and beyond cheaper,” said EU commissioner for Science and Research, Janez Poto%u010Dnik. “Increasing smart investments in research today is an opportunity to develop new sources of growth, to green our economy and to ensure the EU’s competitiveness when we come out of the crisis.”

The EC’s clean-tech plans are outlined in the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan). The Commission has drawn up technology ‘roadmaps’ which identify low carbon technologies with strong potential at EU level in six areas: wind, solar, electricity grids, bioenergy, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and sustainable nuclear fission.

“Today we have a unique opportunity to change an energy model based on polluting, scarce and risky fossil fuels, into a clean, sustainable and less dependent one. All depends on choosing the right technologies,” said EC Commissioner for Energy, Andris Piebalgs.

IT analyst Gartner believes that the financial downturn is driving the current interest in energy efficient data centres – but from next year environmental legislation will be the key catalyst for greener computing. “Reducing costs remains the primary rationale for greening the data centre in 2009. However 2010 and beyond will see corporate social responsibility and government legislation increasingly driving green IT projects and associated investment,” said Gartner managing vice president Matthew Boon.

The UK Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) will affect about 5000 large companies, and will come into force in 2010. The legislation has been described as the the world’s first legally binding carbon budget, which aims at achieving an 80 percent reduction of carbon emissions by 2050.