Svensk Etanolkemi AB, a Swedish biofuels company announced it will spend €343 million ($437.8 million) building four ethanol plants in Hungary to meet higher demand for biofuels.
French energy strategy report expresses new energy paradigm with term "territorial intelligence"
A report on sustainable development prepared by two French Senators for the French Office Parlementaire D’Evaluation des Choix Scientifiques et Technologiques (OPECST) launches a new concept for strategic thinking about energy: "territorial intelligence". In our age of globalization, multinational corporations, mundial geopolitics and transnational energy flows, "territorial intelligence" comes down to an opposite movement, based on a local logic embedded in a "politique de proximité" (local jobs, local energy flows, local resource control, decentralisation - a paradigm similar to the one we graphically sketched in a previous post.)
The report by Senators Pierre Laffitte and Claude Saunier focuses primarily on the potential of biomass and calls for financing the transition to a new energy future by taxes that would be dedicated to promoting buildings insulation, liquid biofuels, biogas, hybrids and electric cars and other low fossil-carbon technologies, particularly in the domestic heating and transport sector. The senators also call for the EU to lead a global energy transition to avoid the worst impact of climate change and an oil shock they predict occurring by 2020 at the latest.
There is a real risk of a level of climate change for which the physical and financial consequences are very underestimated. The economic cost of climate change could increase to 2.5 to 3% of world GDP, they conclude.
The combination of an insufficient supply of oil and ongoing demand from the US, China and India will create by 2020 an oil shock of great reach that will push the price of oil to more than $150/barrel. That shock will take another 2% out of global GDP.
The senators argue that while the transition away from fossil fuels is an urgent requirement, it also offers opportunities for developing new industries. They also assert that the technologies required either exist or are close to being market-ready. They estimate that their financing schemes could raise about €4-5 billion (US$5.1-6.4 billion) to be applied to the development and deployment of such solutions.
Resources:
The report by Senators Pierre Laffitte and Claude Saunier focuses primarily on the potential of biomass and calls for financing the transition to a new energy future by taxes that would be dedicated to promoting buildings insulation, liquid biofuels, biogas, hybrids and electric cars and other low fossil-carbon technologies, particularly in the domestic heating and transport sector. The senators also call for the EU to lead a global energy transition to avoid the worst impact of climate change and an oil shock they predict occurring by 2020 at the latest.
There is a real risk of a level of climate change for which the physical and financial consequences are very underestimated. The economic cost of climate change could increase to 2.5 to 3% of world GDP, they conclude.
The combination of an insufficient supply of oil and ongoing demand from the US, China and India will create by 2020 an oil shock of great reach that will push the price of oil to more than $150/barrel. That shock will take another 2% out of global GDP.
The senators argue that while the transition away from fossil fuels is an urgent requirement, it also offers opportunities for developing new industries. They also assert that the technologies required either exist or are close to being market-ready. They estimate that their financing schemes could raise about €4-5 billion (US$5.1-6.4 billion) to be applied to the development and deployment of such solutions.
Resources:
- Terre-net: Un rapport du Sénat appelle à l’ "intelligence territoriale".
- Original report: Rapport de l'OPECST n° 426 (2005-2006): Changement climatique et transition énergétique : dépasser la crise [*.pdf].
- Discussion: Greencarcongress.
ethanol :: biodiesel :: biobutanol :: biomass :: bioenergy :: biofuels :: energy :: sustainability :: Africa ::
posted by Biopact team at 10:59 PM
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