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What’s happening in Europe?
mechanism for fostering important areas where research, technology and development are key to addressing major economic, technological or societal challenges: the Technology Platform (TP). These can enable the formation of strategic alliances to foster public-private partnerships between the research community, industry and policy makers. The intention is to stimulate effective investment in R&D, accelerate innovation and remove barriers to growth. At the same time, they provide an important output to national and EU policy makers.
Several Technology Platforms, important to develop the bio-based economy, have been developed in Europe, such as the Sustainable Chemistry Technology Platform (SusChem), Plants for the Future and the Biofuels TP. Sustainable Chemistry Technology Platform (SusChem) In June 2004, the European chemical and biotechnology sector organizations CEFIC and EuropaBIO, with the support of the European Commission, launched the European Technology Platform on Sustainable Chemistry (SusChem TP) for establishing a long-standing public-private partnership to increase investment on research and innovation and to boost European competitiveness in the different sectors. It will set a strategic research agenda (SRA) for future EU chemical and biotechnological research in three prioritized technology areas: Industrial Biotechnology, Materials Technology, and Reaction and Process Design. It also includes an area for cross-cutting issues including the environment, health and safety, education and skills, research infrastructures, and access to risk capital. The SusChem Technology Platform will create conditions to:
The Technology Platform will produce:
Within this framework, the Industrial Biotechnology section will ensure a coherent policy framework and the most effective use of R&D resources. Being part of the broader Sustainable Chemistry Platform will guarantee that biotechnology will be properly integrated in the chemical industry. Importantly, the Technology Platform goes beyond merely fostering cooperation at the research stage, but also encourages downstream collaboration to bring technology to full commercialization. Plants for the Future The European Technology Platform "Plants for the Future" is a stakeholder forum on plant genomics and biotechnology that was initiated by the European Commission on the request of the Brussels European Council of March 2003. It is coordinated by EPSO and EuropaBio A wide group of stakeholders jointly published the Vision and the strategic research agenda on how Europe can improve the safe exploitation of the genetic diversity in plants using plant genomics and biotechnology. Input has been collected from research institutions, industry, farmers, politics, financial world, regulatory authorities, as well as consumer and environmental organizations. The agenda defines the strategic research priorities for the two coming decades. The joint research platform “Plants for the future” focus on EU aspects in agriculture, raw materials, feed and food. Responding to climate change, and the growing awareness towards environmental responsibility, plant science will be a key technology in delivering the bio-based economy where energy, raw materials and renewables are increasingly produced by the agricultural sector. For more information: http://www.epsoweb.org/Catalog/TP/ The Biofuels Technology Platform The transport sector accounts for more than 30% of the total energy consumption in the EU. It is 98% dependent on fossil fuels with a high share of imports and thus extremely vulnerable to any market disturbance. Furthermore, this energy sector is envisaged as the main reason for the EU failing to meet the Kyoto targets as it is expected that 90% of the increase of CO2 emissions between 1990 and 2010 will be attributable to transport. The current combined EU-15 production of liquid biofuels is around 1.5 Mtoe/year, which represents less than 1% of the total fuel transport market. Although biofuels production in the last years has grown by more than 25% per year, projections for 2010 are far from EU policy target. EU has a significant potential for the production of biofuels. It is estimated that between 4 and 13% of the total agricultural land in the EU would be needed to produce the amount of biofuels complying with the 5.75% objective set in the Directive 2003/30/EC. Creating an EU market for biofuels will also offer an opportunity for the new Member States that have more agricultural land and will facilitate the absorption of the agricultural sector in the Common Agricultural Policy. In 2003, European texts appeared that reinforced the conditions of development of the biofuel sector. Directive 2003/30/EC is a key EU text in the promotion of carbon-neutral fuels. It aims at raising the share of biofuels sold in the EU market to 5.75% in 2010. Along the same line, Directive 2003/96/EC allows member states to apply differential tax rates in favour of biofuels. A major barrier for the deployment of biofuels is their higher price. To achieve a substantial cost reduction of biofuels, research and technological development is crucial in both the feedstock and the conversion technologies:
The European Biofuels Technology Platform is intended to provide and implement a common European vision and strategy for the production of biofuels, in particular for transport applications, and compatible with the present-day infrastructure. By developing/making use of EU knowledge and scientific excellence, the technology platform will contribute to the development of a world-class cost-competitive European industry, while at the same time contributing to the fulfilment of energy policy objectives. The Biofuels Technology Platform should address all issues that are relevant to the large scale implementation of biofuels in the EU transport sector while enhancing competitiveness of the EU industry worldwide. Main emphasis will be devoted to RTD and demonstration, non-technical barriers and support measures, regulation, legislation, etc. In particular the platform will tackle co-operation between EU and national programmes in the European Research Area, as well as international collaboration with other regions in the world having high quality RTD activities. The platform should also have a role in monitoring the progress of the actions taken to implement the strategy Research Framework Programme 7 Proposals for the 7th Framework Programme were put forward by the European Commission in April 2005. After a period of consultation, the Programme in its final form will go to the European Parliament and Council for approval and adoption via the co-decision process. It will then form the main instrument for funding European R&D for the period 2007-2013. It is vital that FP7 is properly funded and implemented if we are to achieve the innovation goals necessary to fulfil the aspirations of the Lisbon agenda. The proposal for FP7 groups research under 9 themed sub-programmes. Of these the key one which directly encompasses White Biotechnology is Food, Agriculture and Biotechnology. In the words of the Commission “The Food, agriculture and biotechnology priority aims at building a European "knowledge based bio-economy" to answer the growing demand for safer and healthier food as well as for sustainable use and production of renewable bio-resources.” The Commission also wants to encourage multi-disciplinary research cutting across themes. Industrial Biotechnology might also be expected to play a significant role in both the Energy and Environment themes. For more information: http://www.cordis.lu/fp7/ and http://europa.eu.int/comm/research/future/themes/index_en.cfm Environmental Technology Action Plan (ETAP) Environmentally-friendly technologies are less polluting, use less resources, and recycle more wastes and products than their alternatives. They can therefore act as a bridge between the EU's sustainable development strategy (as defined by the Gothenburg European Council) and the Lisbon objectives to make Europe the "most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy" in the world by 2010. However, the development of these technologies is being hampered by market barriers and other obstacles. In order to remove those obstacles and with the intention of making the EU the world leader in developing and applying environmental technologies, the Commission decided to develop an Action Plan for Environmental Technologies (ETAP). In 2002 the Commission produced the report Environmental technology for sustainable development [1] that outlined the environmental technologies market, including some of the barriers to their development. Following this the Commission produced a further communication in March 2003: Developing an action plan for environmental technology[2]. This sought to deepen discussions on the content of the Action Plan by setting out a number of measures and questions as a basis for discussions. In January 2004 the European Commission has released an action plan Stimulating Technologies for Sustainable Development: An Environmental Technologies Action Plan for the European Union[3] to help new environmental technologies overcome barriers to their development, such as lack of access to capital. The action plan includes the launch of 'technology platforms', establishing environmental performance targets for products and services and making the most of the funding schemes and public and private procurement. The proposed actions have three main objectives:
Recently, the Commission adopted the 'Report on the implementation of ETAP in 2004'. This report summarizes the main achievements of the Action Plan in 2004, outlines some actions by Member States on which the implementation of ETAP can build and highlights areas where efforts could be stepped up to make faster progress towards tapping the full potential of environmental technologies. Biofuels Directives The European Commission has adopted an action plan and two Directives to foster the use of alternative fuels for transport, starting with the regulatory and fiscal promotion of biofuels. The Commission considers that the use of fuels (such as ethanol) derived from agricultural sources (i.e. biofuels) is the technology with the greatest potential in the short to medium term. The action plan outlines a strategy to achieve a 20% substitution of diesel and gasoline fuels by alternative fuels in the road transport sector by 2020. It concludes that only three options would have the potential to achieve individually more than 5% of total transport fuel consumption over the next 20 years: biofuels which are already available, natural gas in the medium term and hydrogen and fuel cells in the long term. One Directive establishes a minimum level of biofuels as a proportion of fuels sold from 2005, starting with 2% and reaching 5.75% of fuels sold in 2010. The second Directive gives Member States the option of applying a reduced rate of excise duty to pure or blended biofuels, when used either as heating or motor fuel. For more information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/res/legislation/biofuels_en.htm Biomass Action Plan One of the main energy policy targets of the EU is to double the share of the Renewable Energy Sources (RES) in gross inland consumption, from 5.4 % in 1997 up to 12.0% by 2010. Various legislative actions have been undertaken in order to facilitate this target, such as the promotion of biofuels for transport applications by replacing diesel and petrol up to 5.75% by 2010 (Directive 2003/30 EC) with the accompanying detaxation of biofuels (modification of the taxation of energy products and electricity directive 2003/96/EC). The Communication on “The share of renewable energy in the EU” (COM(2004) 366 final) concluded that further efforts – in particular in the biomass sector – are needed in order to achieve the above policy objective. In 2001, total biomass production for energy purposes was 56 Mtoe. To achieve the RES 12% target 74 Mtoe more are needed by 2010. Each sector has to contribute the following indicative additional amount of biomass energy: electricity 32 Mtoe, heat 24 Mtoe, and biofuels 18 Mtoe. This would lead to a total biomass accumulated energy production of 130 Mtoe in 2010. This additional biomass production can only be achieved in the sort term with strong and targeted measures and actions in all three sectors (electricity, heat, and biofuels for transport) and a better coordination of EU policies. The Community Biomass Action Plan should ensure the achievement of this objective. For more information: http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy/res/biomass_action_plan/index_en.htm |
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The European Commission has established a helpful new