Causas Climate Parliament Forum

Today, Maria da Graça Carvalho participated in the Climate Parliament Forum, which took place in Parliament today and tomorrow. The subject of this forum is the Renewable Energy and how can national and EU Budgets trigger a global energy revolution.

The conference opened today with a session with Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, and included expert presentations on renewable technology, research and development, reducing the cost of capital for renewables, and promoting renewable energy in developing countries.  Part of the conference was spent in smaller working groups on these different issues.

Ms Carvalho´s intervention focused on how to finance the transition to a clean, low carbon society and briefly sketched in three key aspects to the problem.

Ms Carvalho declared that "the first aspect involves the funding of research and innovation with regard to clean technologies; The second key point involves the funding of the infrastructure and projects themselves; The last key point concerns the question of how we can transfer knowledge to the developing world and actually make things happen there".

In addition to the participating MEPs, there were national Members of Parliament from 19 EU Member States, plus a group of 10 leading Indian MPs and other senior Parliamentarians from Japan and the US.