Sustainable energy needs sustainable chemistry

On 19 March Knowledge4Innovation organised a high-level round table meeting at the European Parliament on Europe’s Energy Future. Competitive, secure and sustainable energy is vital for a thriving European economy and the event, hosted by Jerzy Buzek MEP saw keynote speeches from Energy Commissioner Gunther Oettinger and contributions from Dominique Ristori, Director-general for Energy at the European Commission.  Potential solutions provided by sustainable chemistry were described by SusChem board member Gernot Klotz of Cefic.

In the aftermath of the ambitious European Commission goal-setting for 2030, the meeting addressed the current fragmentation challenges and the potential for innovative technologies in the energy sector to move policy targets to implementation.

Commissioner Oettinger summarised The European Union’s ambitions in energy policy: “Reduced emissions, increased use of renewables, affordable energy prices, increased efficiency, smart integrated networks, smarter use of energy and reduction in greenhouse gas emissions of 80% by 2050, all in a way that is sustainable and keeps our economy competitive and our supplies secure.”

He emphasised that there was no shortage of ideas in Europe, but that the major challenge was to turn these ideas into “manufacturable” and “marketable” products and services.

SusChem solutions
Gernot Klotz, Executive Director for Research and Innovation at Cefic, took up this point saying that investment in technologies per se was not sufficient.

“It is also about doing things differently at both private and public level,” he said. “On one side, policy makers need to ensure the integration of policy approaches along the value chain – for example using Key Enabling Technologies from process industries towards advanced materials and consumer solutions.. While on the other side, we need to integrate the various instruments – for example European Technology Platforms (like SusChem) and Public Private Partnerships (like the SPIRE PPP) – and other technological advances within a solid, prioritised and viable Strategic Energy Technology (SET) Plan roadmap for Europe.”

But Klotz (above) also argued that Europe needed to keep its options open and allow for new technological breakthroughs where Europe could capitalise on a competitive advantage – such as the emerging technologies for turning carbon dioxide (CO2) into useful products such as chemicals, materials and fuels.

“It is vital for Europe to seize this opportunity to get global technological leadership,” he continued. “Because CO2 is the only source that Europe has in abundance and global technology leadership would allow us to export to other regions, thus creating jobs and growth.”

Director-General Ristori agreed that there was a requirement to work together across Europe both at industry and private level to gain the critical mass needed for change. Although excellent progress had been made in renewable energy technologies there was still a great challenge to move from world-class research and innovation to viable smart energy solutions.

Innovative technology
The round table participants agreed that key factors for achieving the EU’s ambitious energy goals include a full and productive interaction between policy makers and those able to produce, sell and use innovative products; a strong holistic approach to the energy field; and the creation of strong PPPs to link industry and national and European programmes to invest in future technologies and create a truly smart energy system in Europe.

A common understanding was reached on some important issues: innovation is indispensable for driving a future low-carbon economy; funding has a key role: in terms of energy taxes, CO2 pricing and energy subsidies; energy intensive industries and SMEs need access to affordable energy efficient technologies; the intermittent nature of renewable technologies that needs to be addressed by innovative smart energy storage and grid management solutions; and, above all else, to achieve a long-term, sustainable energy strategy required innovative technology solutions.

Both SusChem and SPIRE have and will continue to contribute chemical and other innovations to the sustainable energy sector and will plat a leading role in developing the new low carbon technologies that Europe and the World needs.

The Knowledge4Innovation Forum will take the main issues discussed forward to future forums and the Sixth European Innovation Summit that will take place in Brussels form 17-20 November 2014.

For more information about the Europe’s Energy Future event, please visit the K4I website.

Europe’s Energy Future

Competitive, secure and sustainable energy is vital for a thriving European economy and society. In the aftermath of the ambitious European Commission goal-setting for 2030, a high-level round table addressing the current fragmentation challenges and the promises of innovative technologies in the energy sector will place policy targets on the path to implementation. This discussion will take place on 19 March 2014 at the European Parliament in Brussels hosted by Mr. Jerzy Buzek MEP, Chairman of the Knowledge for Innovation (K4I) Forum.

The meeting entitled ‘Europe’s Energy Future: Efficiency and competitiveness through smart integration’ will examine the EU’s ambitious 2030 energy targets. These will only be meaningful if we manage the sustainable integration of a portfolio of energy technologies, elevate the current level of debate and action to broader concepts across sectors and national / regional activities and their implications on sustainability and competitiveness, and consider the significant recent changes in global context including emerging economies, access to energy supply, dependency, technological leadership, and Europe’s role and needs.

 The key note speech will be made by Günther H. Oettinger, European Commissioner for Energy, with contributions from: Dominique Ristori, Director-General at DG Energy; András Siegler, Director of Energy at DG Research and Innovation; Gernot Klotz Executive Director Research and Innovation, CEFIC; Pedro de Sampaio Nunes Head of Secretariat, EUREKA; David Salisbury President of the European Gas Research Group (GERG); and Gabriel Marquette General Manager of EUROGIA 2020: the EUREKA cluster for low-carbon energy technologies.

This high-level round table could mark the setting of some new directions for a more efficient articulation of a sustainable European energy system highlighting new business models, new opportunities and synergies.

Both SusChem and SPIRE have and continue to contribute chemical innovations to the sustainable energy sector and have leading roles to play in development of new low-carbon technologies.

Scope and issues
The EU needs new, high performance low-cost, low-carbon sustainable energy technologies to be brought to the market. However, the greatest impact of these technologies in terms of delivery on policy goals, competitiveness and efficiency will be achieved through an integrated strategy for innovation in the energy area.

The Integrated Energy Roadmap puts forward an action plan that addresses the energy challenges in a system approach, consolidates and aligns the various individual technology roadmaps, covers the entire research and innovation chain, and identifies pathways for work and synergies between various programmes, stakeholders, instruments and authorities.

However, the roadmap needs to practically address a series of existing challenges for implementation including how and what to prioritise short-term versus medium-term and long-term, what we can learn from each other across sectors, borders, and along value chain, how to create synergies among different instruments, different sectors, different technologies, and how to balance (sometimes competing) targets considering technological, economic, environmental and social aspects.

More information
Further information on the event can be found on the K4I website.

Wake Up Europe!

On 26 March, key MEPs and Innovations leaders discussed the future of Europe at a special event organised by Knowledge4Innovation (K4I) at the European Parliament. “Wake up Europe: A Call for Action” aimed to deliver a 'Wake-up Call' to European policy-makers, highlighting the main problems for the future of innovation in Europe and drawing up proposals for immediate actions. Of course, SusChem was there!

The event coincided with the publication of several European Commission reports on aspects of innovation that confirm many issues that Europe is struggling with in this vital policy area. The reports show sharp drops in living standards in some Member States, high unemployment rates especially among the younger generations, large disparities in innovation performance among the Member States and declining investment.

K4I President Friedhelm Schmider, Director General of ECPA acknowledged that Europe used to be at the forefront of science, technology and innovation, but is now lagging behind with serious consequences. Europe should therefore create a business climate that boosts innovation, productivity and sustainability, and reverses the anti-technology and risk-averse sentiment of European society and politics. “We need to build trust in society about science and technology and finally shape EU policies and supportive tools to strengthen entrepreneurship, scientific research, development and innovation across Europe,” explained Mr Schmider.

Innovation ecosystem
SusChem board member Dr. Gernot Klotz, representing the European Chemical Industry Council (CEFIC) - a K4I Founding Member, stressed that the European Union needs to have an innovation model, based on its strengths - value chains, “ecosystems” of big and small companies and experience to deal with complex solutions. He pointed out that the EU needs instruments in order to set innovation priorities according to the capacities and interests in the different Member States.

Responding to the proposals put forward, Mr Jerzy Buzek, MEP and former President of the European Parliament said that after the Lisbon and the Europe 2020 Strategies, this is the third Wake up call. Mr Buzek also stated: “The Europe 2020 Strategy is not working because of the crisis, but during the fifth European Innovation Summit, we will send a strong signal that it is still alive”. He emphasized that building an Innovation spirit in Europe requires crucial changes in the education system.

K4I Forum President Mr Lambert van Nistelrooij, MEP pointed out that this Wakeup call is meant to show that there are a lot of possibilities coming with the new funding programmes such as Horizon 2020 and the Structural funds. “The [national] governments however do not present these opportunities enough and much better communication is needed from their side” stated Mr van Nistelrooij. Fortunately organisations such as K4I and SusChem succeed in stimulating communication on these issues in Europe.

The Wake-up Call event is the starting point of series of events, which will culminate at the Fifth European Innovation Summit (EIS), which will take place at the European Parliament in Brussels on 30 September to 2 October. The Summit will bring together MEPs, high level EC officials and Innovation stakeholders. The 5^th EIS will address new perspectives for innovation for the period 2014-2020. For more information contact the K4I secretariat.

2012 SusChem Event builds Innovation Momentum

SusChem 2012 was a resounding success. Well over 200 participants enjoyed two days of discussions and debate on future SusChem strategy and heard about progress in priority innovation activities including resource efficiency, water, critical raw materials, smart cities and education. New initiatives were launched and delegates left with a clear understanding of SusChem’s commitement to Europe’s priorities and renewed enthusiasm for the challenges ahead. A summary video of the stakeholder event can be viewed on YouTube.

The next year will be important for SusChem, sustainable chemistry and Europe as the scope and direction of Horizon 2020 and our portfolio of innovation initiatives are discussed and decided.

Summing up the two-day event Klaus Sommer, chairman of the SusChem board, stated: “SusChem has achieved excellent recognition with European institutions. We have good momentum in all our activities and a fantastic opportunity to shape our own and Europe’s future.”

The main conference session on day one had been opened with a supportive message from Prof Jerzy Buzek, MEP who conveyed his strong belief that the “real remedy [to the current economic crisis] will be found through research, development, and applied innovation and the chemical sector will play here a leading role.” He thought SusChem and other technology platforms held a key role in identifying the right ideas and ensuring that EU funds are allocated in the most appropriate manner. The full text of Prof. Buzek's message can be read here.

New initiatives

At the start of the event the 11th full SusChem National Technology Platform (NTP) was formally initiated with the launch of SusChem Belgium.

The 10th Stakeholder also saw the launch of a significant new Education initiative – ‘Educate to Innovate’ - that seeks to exploit innovation outputs from SusChem’s research and innovation projects to help enhance the innovation skills of future generations of scientists and engineers.

Sommer described the education initiative in his summary as: “an opportunity to introduce concepts of sustainability, social skills and entrepreneurship as a mind set and new paradigm into higher education.”

Workshops and plenary sessions throughout the meeting covered the four main innovation initiatives that SusChem is involved with. The road ahead and main issues were discussed. In particular for the proposed SPIRE Resource Efficiency Public-Private-Partnership had been the subject of a Dinner Debate on the evening of the first day with supportive messages from industry, public authorities and the Commission.

Strategy

On day one SusChem board member Rodney Townsend had had presented the new SusChem strategy initiative to move SusChem towards a European Technology and Innovation Platform (ETIP). On the second day he summed up initial feedback from stakeholders on proposals.

This was generally positive, but there were calls for greater clarity on economic considerations and a clearer definition of innovation. Also there were queries about how to set criteria to define sustainability and suggestion to include regional networks and standardisation into SusChem thinking. Issues such as how collaborative activities can be continued beyond the pre-competitive stage, relationships between large and small companies, and investment, merger and acquisition will all feed into the developing strategy.

Communication

Concluding the conference Sommer discussed increased stakeholder involvement in SusChem activities. He saw a need to improve communications with our National Platform network and ensure their alignment with activities on the European level. Discussion and debate between stakeholders was important in shaping policies and more time for this needed to be included in stakeholder meetings.

Sommer also promised a regular email newsletter to SusChem stakeholders to ensure everyone was up-to-date on the status of our initiatives in what was likely to be a dynamic year ahead. And he stressed that stakeholders should not hold back from sending their feedback and input to SusChem at any time – multiple channels were available (twitter, email, this blog etc) – and all input was appreciated.

Next SusChem events

SusChem will be participating strongly in the European Commission’s Industrial Technologies 2012 conference and exhibition in Aarhus, Denmark from 19 – 21 June.

The next SusChem event will be the FP7 Brokerage event on 18 September in Brussels. We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Photos from #SusChem2012

The 10th SusChem Stakeholder event on 17 and 18 April was filled with interesting and inspiring sessions. Here we present a small selection of photos from the event. Lots more images can be found on the SusChem website and we aim to upload all presentations in the near future.

Delegates started with a coffee before an official launch of SusChem Belgium NTP and a welcome message from Prof Jerzy Buzek, MEP.

Ger Spork (above) of the SusChem secretariat at Cefic was the master of ceremonies for the day.

The chairman of the SusChem board Klaus Sommer of Bayer TS told the stakeholder audience that 'the future is based on chemistry'. He is pictured (above) being interviewed by Euractiv. Euractiv has produced a series of videos from the event that are available on the Euractiv website and across SusChem communication platforms in the near future.



"That's about the size of it" says Mike Pitts of the UK's CIKTN gave an entertaining and informative presentation on Critical Raw Materials on Day 1 of the stakeholder seminar. He will also feature in one of the Euractiv video interviews. Mike has already blogged his presentation here.

Rudolf Strohmeier is Deputy Director General of the European Commission's DG Research & Innovation. He made a number of interventions and presentations during the stakeholder meeting calling for a clear private commitement to the forthcoming innovation initiatives.

 

SusChem Stakeholder Speaker: Prof. Jerzy Buzek

Polish MEP Prof. Jerzy Buzek will address the opening session of the 10^th Annual SusChem Stakeholder event on 17 April. The former President of the European Parliament and former Polish Prime Minister is one of a handful of MEPs with a scientific background and has been influential in shaping European research and innovation policy. His talk will cover the status of EU innovation policy, the role of technology platforms and sustainable chemistry in achieving sustainable growth, and how industry can become more engaged in European innovation initiatives.

Jerzy Buzek was born in 1940 in Śmiłowice, a town in south-eastern Silesia which is now part of the Czech Republic. His science career started in the mechanical and energy engineering department at the Silesian University of Technology in Gliwice graduating in 1963. He then started work at the Institute of Chemical Engineering in the Polish Academy of Sciences in Gliwice gaining his doctorate in 1969. Jerzy Buzek continued his scientific work throughout the 1970s including a research placement at the University of Cambridge in 1971.

His research work was largely in the field of environmental protection and he was a highly regarded lecturer at the Silesian University of Technology, and later at the Opole University of Technology. In the early to mid 90s Buzek was Poland’s representative at the International Energy Agency programme on the Greenhouse Gas effect. Jerzy Buzek's achievements in scientific research and in teaching were recognised when he was appointed Professor of Engineering.

Polish politics
In late 1980 Jerzy Buzek became a member of Solidarność and in summer 1981 he was a delegate to the First National Congress of Solidarność and became an increasingly important member of the movement. By February 1997 Buzek was coordinator of the panel of economics experts within the Solidarity Electoral Action (AWS) party and was elected to the Polish parliament. The AWS’s success in this election was largely due to its economic policies and the party nominated him for the office of Prime Minister.

Jerzy Buzek's government was sworn in at the end of October 1997 and continued until October 2001, during which time Buzek took Poland into NATO and negotiated the term's of Poland's accession to the European Union. When the AWS lost the parliamentary elections in the autumn of 2001, Jerzy Buzek withdrew from active politics for a few years.

EP President
However, following Poland’s accession to the EU in 2004 Jerzy Buzek was elected to the European Parliament with the largest majority in Poland. Once in Brussels, he threw himself into the parliament's work. In particular from a research and innovation view point he was the European Parliament's rapporteur for the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Development (FP7) legislative package, and for the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan. Between 2004 and 2009 he was a member of the European Parliament's Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE).

Jerzy Buzek's personality and skills, combined with his professional approach to politics led to his election to the office of President of the European Parliament on 14 July 2009. He obtained the biggest majority of any EP President since the first direct elections in 1979 and he was the first President to hail from one of the EU's new Member States. His two and a half year term ended in January 2012.

Prof. Buzek remains an MEP and is actively participates in ITRE activities and the EP's Committee of Foreign Affairs (AFET).

Event registration
Registration for the Stakeholder event on 17-18 April is open now on the new SusChem website. Click here to find out more about the stakeholder event! We are expecting a record attendance and registration will close on 6 April. So don't delay - register today!