WG_Energy

THEMATIC GROUPS - RENEWABLE ENERGY

EVENTS
Joint Annual Conference of the North Sea Commission's Sustainable
Development Group and the Baltic Sea Commission's Energy Group;
"Regional actions for sustainable buildings” in Umeå (Sweden) 24-25
April 2008.

Programme
List of participants
The Baltic Sea Commission Agenda

Present
The major focus for the Energy WG in 2008, besides the Sustainable
energy week in January, has so far been on planning the joint
conference with the NSC Sustainable Development Group in Umeå,
April 24-25. We will hold a separate WG meeting on the 23rd. The
theme of the conference is "Regional actions for sustainable
buildings".

Coming up next is a new steering committee meeting in Brussels on
May 28th, where the "Energy and climate package" and its process
will be discussed. During April, a draft position paper from CPMR
regarding energy and climate will be circulated around the steering
committee for input, later to be passed on to the geographical
commissions and the bureau/GA.

Closer cooperation with the BSSSC and other Baltic Sea organizations
was initiated in 2007 and will continue in 2008. Ideas have come up
concerning the biofuels discussion and that a seminar about that
heavily debated topic might be a good idea, especially since this is of
great interest for regions around the Baltic Sea.

Otherwise, despite the massive focus on energy and climate
nowadays, there has been quite low interest from the member
regions in participating more actively in the working group.
Cooperation with the NSC and other Baltic Sea organizations are
therefore seen as vital inputs and parts of the WG's work.

The WG was also represented at the CPMR energy steering committee
meeting and contributed with a speaker at the CMPR seminar during
Sustainable Energy Week in Brussels, January 30th.

Background
At the BSC meeting in connection to the CPMR General Assembly in
Murcia 2006, the County Council of Västerbotten expressed a will to
chair a working group on energy. The focus of the WG will be on
renewable energy sources, in particular on those coming from
agriculture and forestry sector. However, the WG is open to all BSC
members and the issues they would like to raise, which means that
other questions can come into focus as well if the members so desire.
Chairman is Dr. Erik Bergkvist, County Councillor and Chairman of
the Board of Regional Development in Västerbotten. Ms. Linnéa
Lundström will be coordinating the WG.

Activities
The group has throughout 2007 done the following:
- A kick-off meeting in Stockholm, January 2007.
- Compiled an answer to the European Commission's open
consultation on biofuel.
- Organised a workshop at the BSC GA in Bodø.
- Drafted a resolution on energy that was accepted at the BSC GA in
Bodø.
- Drafted a resolution to the CPMR GA in Florence.
- Cooperation with the NSC Sustainable Development Group, a joint
meeting at Arlanda, and planning a joint conference in the spring of
2008.
- Increased the information exchange with BSSSC on energy, by
circulating the draft resolution to the BSSSC secretariat and attending
the BSSSC conference in Turku
The work ahead:
- Presentation at the CPMR Energy conference in Croatia?
- Adoption of the resolution at the GA in Florence?
- Organising a conference with the NSC Sustainable Development
Group, spring 2008.
- Contribute to the joint Baltic Sea (BSC+BSSSC and others) answer
to the Commission's Green Paper on Climate Change.
- Continued activities in 2008= Västerbotten to keep the
chairmanship?