Energy For Life Project

1. Relevance of the Action

General presentation of the action

The action aims at increasing public awareness on renewable energies as tool of sustainable development to face depletion of earth's natural resources, poverty increase of climate change.

The globle energy demand is stably increasing, 1.6% per year, and there is a strong interdependency between Europe and developing countries (DCs) about energy issues as their behaviour influence both energy's economics costs, that will augment due to an additional demand, estimated 60% higher in 2030, and environmental costs related to non-renewable energy consume.

Energy is a neccessary resource for countries to develop and increase their living standard. While European countries growth has been based on fossil fuels, indicated as the responsible for global warning, DCs have now to face the environmental challenge: to reduce poverty without further polluting the planet. In implementing this hard task DCs should be uphold in the use of alternative source of energy to implement their own development as it has been addressed by the international community (Earch Summit-Agenda 21, 1992 and Kyoto protocol, 1997). This attention to the environmental thread strengthen the tight relation between energy and development, theme that from the beginning of the 1990s became a priority in development programs (UNDP initiative for Sustainable Development, 1995).

Renewable Energies (REs) will reach their full potential in poverty alleviation if there is a comprehensive response from European countries that can be fostered by awareness raising actions that mobilise support and stimulate technology transfer to people in DCs in order to prevent future and increasingly expensive adaptation costs. Realising the importance of sharing experiences and working together to achieve common goals, the action intends to raise awareness on REs, their applications and their connections with poverty reduction and will evolve at two different and complementary levels: i) networking, research and internal communication activities targeting stakeholders dealing with REs and development; ii) communication and educational activities for the general public, with specific focus on the energy users of tomorrow. Main tool of the action will be a web site containing): i) online platform for NGOs and online database of REs projects; ii) communication and campaigning materials (publications, posters, prochures); iii) online role-play game for school children.

The action will be accompanied by an intense communication campaign "Energy for Life" that aims to convince the public at large that making a commitment to REs is an investment in the future of Europe and DCs. The campaign will reach its climax with the organization of the "Energy Day"- international conference to be held in Milan (candidate to host Expo 2015 with theme Feeding the planet-Energy for Life" in the framework of the Energy Week 2010. This way, it will contribute to the SEE Sustainable Energy Europe campaign (Intelligent Energy-Europe programme, DG Energy and Transport) for the sector "Sustainable Energy Co-operation with DCs", in line with the World Strategy for Sustainable Developments (WSSD), the European Union Energy Initiative for Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development (EUEI), and the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC).

2. Description of the action and its effectiveness

Description of the overall objective of the action, outputs and expected results;

The overall objectives of the action are to raise public awareness on the interdependence between the EU and developing countries; to mobilise support for more equitable North-South relations and to encourage international co-operation-within the framework of the links between renewable energies and development.

The specific objective is to promote REs projects and technologies as tool for achieving sustainable development in Europe and in developing countries.​The action will create a platform of stakeholders dealing with REs in Europe and DCs and start an online database of the best practices and successful experiences. By increasing the visibility of REs projects and technologies and by collecting their experiences and expertise, Istituto Oikos and project partners will advance understanding of the importance of REs for the achievement of the MDGs. The project web site will provide a basis for strategic and innovative solutions for managing climate change and its impacts on DCs, a metter of great relevance since most DCs do not have sufficient resources to deal with the problem. Partmerships between EU energy actors and those of developing countries will strengthen local energy expertise in DCs through the implementation of energy policies and know-how transfer.

Expected results of the action are:

R1) Strengthened international co-operation.

R2) Increased public awareness on the link between REs and development.

R3) Europeans understand the benefits of sustainable energy production and use at global scale.

R4) Increase of REs projects and investments.

Description of the proposed activities and their effectiveness

The activities, to reach the expected results, will be the following:

A1: A platform among NGOs and local authorities will be established on REs and development. Members will co-operate in data collection and information exchange. After discussion of the latest results in international co-operation regarding energy technologies, energy systems and their political, social and economical impacts, a REs projects database will be created and the platform will be ready to join the SEE campaign.

A2: Specific policy research and supervision of the scientific board, including REs policies and selected best practices. Materials for the awareness raising campaign "Energy for Life" will be prepared (poster, leaflets, game) and the web portal will be settled and enriched with general information about the platform (mission, link with partners web sites), online REs projects directory, information about the "Energy for Life" campaign (objectives, promoters, materials, events), forum and online game that will captivate players by involving them deeply into a community of peers. A digital bi-annual newsletter will be issued.

A3: Campaign posters and leaflets will be disseminated for general public. Project advocacy officers will organise educational seminars in selected schools while a special poster announcing the launch of the online game will be distributed to a large number of schools. An "Energy Day" - International Conference will be held in Milan (Sustainable city and candidate city to host Expo 2015) during the Energy week of 2010 (Kyoto Protocol Deadline) in collaboration with Italian Ministry of Environment including a morning session open to environmental experts, strategists and specialists, an afternoon session for stakeholders workshops, a press conference and an evening session open to general public for the presentation of the online game.

A4: European partners will implement meetings between energy actors at national level in order to involve them in the platform activities, press conferences and events, to be followed by the constitution of a Community of Practice about REs and development within the project web site. The project will be attending Industry Fairs (energy, evnironment, co-operation).

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