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Special Mini-Edition the Third Industrial Revolution 1 '+$',B6G8=% Interviews: Dimas, Piebalgs, Pöttering | Acciona, IBM, Philips, Q-Cells, UTC Interview Special edition Business, Politics & Culture Europe’s energy magazine for decision-makers Special edition December 2008 1 – 12 December 2008 A new economic narrative United Nations Climate Change Conference Leading the way to Special mini-edition the Third Industrial Revolution www.europeanenergyreview.eu 1 '+$',B6G8=%. IDJGI6M>H7GJHH:AH GZ\^hiZgdcmmm$[Xikcc_j$[k LZVgZVbZY^VeVgicZgd[i]Zhjbb^i DJGE6GIC:GH HigViZ\^XEVgicZg BV^cEVgicZg EGEVgicZg 7gdVYXVhi^c\EVgicZgh @cdlaZY\ZEVgicZgh IgVchViaVci^XEVgicZg ;dgbdgZ^c[dgbVi^dcXdcXZgc^c\eVgicZgh]^edeedgijc^i^Zh!eaZVhZXdciVXiE#=ZgbVci!<ZcZgVaBVcV\Zg:jgdeZVc7jh^cZhhHjbb^i/e]@ZWhjbb^i#Zj!IZa#/ ('%'*&*%-&& Contents European Energy Review Special mini-edition June 2008 www.europeanenergyreview.eu Editor-in-chief Karel Beckman [email protected] +31 6 52 52 76 67 Editor Rik Komduur [email protected] 1 year of European Energy Review Art director Eldad Groenman With this mini-edition, European Energy Review – Photography editor Europe’s new energy magazine – celebrates its first Ron van Duuren birthday. Graphic design European Energy Review is in many ways a unique Wim de Vries Harmen Heida magazine. It is truly European, written by journalists and experts from all over Europe. It covers the energy Correspondents Ioannis Michaletos (Athens), Stefan Nicola (Berlin), market in all its breadth and complexity – from oil, Anke Truijen (Bosnia), Marc Guillet (Istanbul), gas, coal and nuclear to the whole spectrum of Stefan Schroeter (Leipzig), Alex Forbes (London), Maarten Veeger (Milan), Yves de Saint Jacob (Paris), renewables. And it features in-depth, independent Bert van Dijk (Shanghai), Hughes Belin (Brussels), stories and reports. Reiner Gatermann (Sweden), Steven Adolf (Spain), Remco de Jong (Belgium) Above all, however, European Energy Review has set itself the mission to serve as a trusted guide in the Regular contributors Chris Cragg, Mathijs van Gool, Rudolf ten Hoedt, multiform energy transition Europe is faced with today. Jeroen Ketting, Coby van der Linde, Leen As you know, the energy market is going through a Preesman, Annemiek Planting, Annemieke van Roekel, Branko Terzic, Hans Verwijs far-reaching transition – from a high CO2 to a low CO2 energy mix, from dependency to self-sufficiency and Publishers Henk Jacobs diversification, from national markets to an integrated Robert Wielinga market, from a western-dominated to a multipolar Editorial Board world. This is where we are trying to lead our readers Anders Åslund, Jean-Marie Chevalier, Angelo as well. Ferrari, Herman Franssen, Coby van der Linde, Claude Mandil, Peter Odell, Walt Patterson, Erik Steen Sorensen, Valery Sorokin, Jonathan Stern, This mini-edition is especially appropriate to our Jean Vermeire, Luc Werring purpose. It features a visionary essay, written by Advisory Board the famous American author Jeremy Rifkin, in Marcel Kramer George Verberg collaboration with Rifkin’s associate Angelo Consoli and with Professor Maria da Graça Carvalho, former Knowledge partners Energy Delta Institute, Groningen Portuguese Minister of Science, and Matteo Bonifacio, Clingendael International Energy Programme, The Hague who both work for the Bureau of European Policy ECN, Petten Netherlands-Russia Centre, Groningen Advisers (BEPA) and are consultants to European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. In addition, we have interviewed EU Commissioners Advertising enquiries Eurintro Media Sales, Jacqueline Ackers Andris Piebalgs and Stavros Dimas, President of the Email: [email protected] European Parliament Hans-Gert Pöttering and five Phone: + 32 (0) 2 230 50 00 Fax: + 32 (0) 2 231 10 40 representatives from international corporations (IBM, Philips, UTC, Acciona and Q-Cells) about the “Rifkin Castel International Publishers P.O. Box 70061 vision”. You will find their comments interspersed in 9704 AB Groningen the article. The full interviews can be found on our The Netherlands Phone: +31(0)50 853 32 00 website: www.europeanenergyreview.eu, where you Email: [email protected] can also subscribe to EER. EER is published six times a year Annual subscription price €490 We hope you will enjoy reading this editon – and will To subscribe please send an email to [email protected] join us to become part of the great European energy transition! ISSN Number 1875-3744 We welcome contributions from energy profes- sionals and journalists. Please inquire beforehand with the editor-in-chief for more details. Karel Beckman editor-in-chief © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, transmitted or recorded in any form without prior permission of the publisher. The publisher does not accept responsibility for any loss resulting from mistakes herein. European Energy Review December 2008 | Special edition Cover picture by Thierry Monasse 3 Special edition Interview Addressing the Triple Threat of the Global Financial Crisis, Energy Crisis, and Climate Change Leading the Way to the Third Industrial Revolution We are at a precarious point in By: Jeremy Rifkin (President, The Foundation on history. We are facing the real Economic Trends) prospect of an economic meltdown Maria da Graça Carvalho* (Principal Adviser, on the scale of the Great Depression. Bureau of European Policy Advisers – BEPA) The credit crisis is compounded Angelo Consoli (European Director, The Foundation on Economic Trends) by the global energy crisis and the climate change crisis, creating a Matteo Bonifacio* (Adviser, Bureau of European Policy Advisers – BEPA) potential cataclysm for civilization. There is a way out: we need to * The opinions presented in this article are personal to the radically overhaul the way we use authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission energy in our society. Special edition | December 2008 European Energy Review 4 Interview Special edition There is a wide consensus that we are approaching the As the European Union prepares for the 14th Climate sunset of the oil era in the first half of the 21st century. Change Conference in Poznan, Poland in December The price of oil on global markets continues to remain 2008, and the 15th Climate Change Conference in high and peak global oil is within sight in the coming Copenhagen, Denmark in 2009, it is critical that we decades. At the same time, the dramatic rise in carbon reframe the discussion on climate change and energy dioxide emissions from the burning of fossil fuels is security to the mission of making the transition from raising the earth’s temperature and threatening an the Second Industrial Revolution to a Third Industrial unprecedented change in the chemistry of the planet, Revolution. If we do not succeed in reorienting the with ominous consequences for the future of human climate change and energy agenda from burden- civilization and the ecosystems of the earth. sharing to commercial opportunities, it is likely that The triple threat of the global credit crisis, the global the Poznan and Copenhagen Climate Conferences will energy crisis, and the global climate change crisis are not achieve their full potential. interwoven and feed off of each other. Addressing the triple threat to our way of life will require a new The key is to lay out a compelling “social vision” to economic story that can remake civilization along accompany the new economic vision. The Third sustainable lines. Industrial Revolution provides the framework for The European Union needs a powerful new economic the birth of a “New Social Europe” in the first half of narrative that will push the discussion and the the 21st Century. Just as the distributed Information agenda around climate change and peak oil from fear Technology and internet communication revolutions to hope and from economic constraints to economic dramatically changed the social context, as well as the possibilities. That narrative is just now emerging as economic parameters of doing business, a distributed industries across Europe begin to lay the groundwork renewable energy revolution will have a similar impact for a post-carbon Third Industrial Revolution. on Europe and the world. Carmen Becerril is Managing Director Corporate Resources and Public Affairs of energy and building group Acciona, one of the largest producers of renewable energy in Spain ‘The model based on fossil fuels is unsustainable’ ‘The traditional energy model, based for access to credit in these difficult now possible. Acciona Solar’s on fossil fuels, is unsustainable. times. The EU is working in the right headquarters in Pamplona is a zero- The need to evolve to a more direction, although policies could emissions building; it uses half the sustainable model is much more a be applied with more determination. energy consumed by a conventional structural problem than the credit Some aspects such as adapting the building and covers the remainder crisis, which will be overcome in a grid to sustainable energies should with renewables, such as biodiesel, reasonable time. Renewable energy get more priority. The success of solar PV and solar thermal energy. activities will be affected by the wind power in Spain and Germany It also uses demand management crisis since they require large capital shows what can be achieved with systems to optimise energy investments. I believe that if the a good regulatory framework. An consumption. It actually exports people in charge of our energy policy exciting aspect of
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