Factsheet: New Developments in UK Activities in Support of the Gleneagles Plan of Action

Factsheet:
New Developments in UK Activities
in Support of Gleneagles Plan of Action

EU-China Partnership on Climate Change: Near Zero Emissions Coal

The proposal for a joint EU-China project on Near Zero Emissions Coal was announced at the EU-China Summit on September 5th as part of the Partnership on Climate Change.

The nZEC project aims to demonstrate coal fired power generation with carbon capture and storage technology in China by 2020. This is in recognition that carbon dioxide emissions from China's increasing coal use are set to double by 2030.

The UK is leading the first phase and supporting it with £3.5M of funding. The 3-year feasibility study will examine the viability of different technology options for the capture of carbon dioxide emissions from power generation and the potential for geological storage in China. Discussions with China are progressing well, and we hope to begin awarding contracts for the initial feasibility stage of the project in early 2006.

Key industry players who have expressed a strong interest in participating in the nZEC project.

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP)

The UK Government is providing significant further funding to support the activities of the Renewable Energy And Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP).

Following on from the £2.5million the UK provided this year, Defra will be providing a further £2.5 million pounds per year in 2006/7 and 2007/8. In addition, the FCO will be providing funding of £1million in 2006/7 giving a total of £6m from the UK over the coming two years.

The additional funding will provide REEEP with the capabilities to play an important role in helping to take forward the Gleneagles Plan of Action, increase its global reach by further expanding its network of regional secretariats, and support a growing number of individual projects around the world to develop robust policies, favourable, transparent and stable regulatory frameworks, and new forms of financing to promote renewable energy and energy efficiency. This will build on the successful projects REEEP is already delivering on the ground, for example support to a Bangkok based company to establish a ? 50 million fund to finance energy efficiency and renewable energy projects in China, India and Southeast Asia.

UK-India Cooperation on Clean Energy Technology

The UK and India announced the launch of a joint study on how to reinforce cooperation on energy technology between developed and developing countries.

The study will work to identify potential policy, regulatory and financing barriers to technology cooperation, how to stimulate innovation in both developed and developing countries, as well as development at the national and international levels.

At the G8 meeting in Gleneagles technology transfer and strengthening of technology cooperation were recognised as necessary to address the challenges posed by climate change. India along with Brazil, China, South Africa and Mexico called for a new approach to international co-operation on clean energy technologies between the developed and developing world.

The UK is also taking forward events to look in more detail at two areas of the plan of action: energy efficiency and transport.

The International Energy Efficiency conference will be on the 2-3 November, to consult on international elements of European Commission Green Paper on energy efficiency. It will be attended by 40 countries (including all countries attending Dialogue plus EU Member States and accession countries - many of the delegates on 1 November are staying on for this).

The Environmentally Friendly Vehicles Conference will be on the 10-11 November, and will launch a global dialogue on environmentally friendly vehicles, bringing policy makers and industry together to shape the future market for clean and fuel-efficient vehicles. It will be attended by 30 plus countries including all G8 and +5 countries.

And, of course, on 5 and 6 October we hosted an international conference for business on climate change entitled "Climate Change: The Business Forecast". Over 300 delegates from businesses in the UK, EU, G8 and the key emerging markets were involved in discussions around four main themes: "transport and logistics"; "power and energy"; "consumers, products and buildings"; and "investment and finance". The outputs of these discussions have been collated into a series of "business insights" which have been fed into this G8+Dialogue meeting and will be formally launched at COP/MOP in Montreal in December.

Notes for Editors

1. Carbon capture and storage involves capturing carbon dioxide from the combustion process and storing it underground in geological formations such as aquifiers and depleted oil fields. The technology has the potential to reduce carbon dioxide emissions by some 90%.

2. REEEP is a multi-stakeholder partnership launched by the United Kingdom along with other partners at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002. It has been developed by a wide range of stakeholders at national and regional levels with an International Secretariat in Vienna and a network of Regional Secretariats. REEEP now has over 30 partner governments and receives financial contributions towards its programme from the UK, Australia, Italy, Germany, Holland and others. All the G8 partners except Russia have now signed up and the US have cited REEEP as an important part of their international work on sustainable energy.

3. REEEP is a successful Partnership with a growing reputation for working globally to spread best practice through international collaboration to overcome barriers to the development of a global market in renewable energy and energy efficiency. This was recognised earlier this year by the G8 in the Gleneagles Plan of Action which explicitly encouraged the important work done by REEEP and other Partnerships.

4. The UK-India study will work to identify potential policy, regulatory and financing barriers to technology cooperation, how to stimulate innovation in both developed and developing countries, as well as development at the national and international levels. The study will report into the next meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue during 2006.

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	Please send comments to: g7@utoronto.ca This page was last updated August 15, 2024.