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Belgian & EU Parliamentary Meetings on Peakoil & Energy Policy
Posted by Rembrandt on March 21, 2011 - 10:00am
The end of cheap oil poses the great challenge of diminishing dependence on oil in the economy. Topics of importance include coping with effects of high oil prices on the economy and investment, regional transport planning for diminished oil use, and an agriculture without fossil fuel use, To advance policy discussions on these and more topics two meetings will be held as part of the 9th ASPO conference in Belgium, at the European Parliament (03 may 2011) and the Walloon Parliament (26 April 2011) in Belgium. Both meetings can be attended publicly free of charge. The meetings are organized together with the Peakoil & Gas Committee of the Walloon Parliament and the Greens/European Free Alliance Party in the European Parliament
Full details about the program of these meetings and how to register can be found below the fold.
The meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium, will focus on Transport, Energy, and Agricultural Policy in the light of dependence of increasingly expensive oil, and the meeting at the Walloon Parliament in Namur, Belgium, will focus on regional planning and financial stability in an era of high oil prices. These provide one of the first events where politicians at the Belgian and European level will discuss together about Peakoil and its impacts. Both meetings are part of the 9th conference of the Association for the Study of Peakoil & Gas that will be held from 27-29 April 2011. The main conference gives the latest scientific basis on these and additional energy topics, while the Parliamentary meetings provides the stage for an in-depth political discussion. To register for these meetings the procedure via the main conference website needs to be followed.
Program for the meeting at the European Parliament in Brussels (03 May 2011 - 08:30 - 12:30)
Part I: Peak Oil Evidence and Peak Oil Activities in different EU Member States
- Kjell Aleklett, President of ASPO, Head Global Energy Systems Group Uppsala University
- UK Industry Task Force on peak Oil and Energy Security (To be Confirmed)
- Lord Ron Oxburgh, House of Lords UK Parliament, former chairman of Shell
- Michel Lebrun, Vice-President of the Belgian Walloon ParliamentPart II: The EU and Peak Oil - analyses and policy measures
- Marjeta Jager, Director for General Policy - DG Move - EU transport policy and peak oil
- Philipp Lowe - Director General DG Energy - EU Energy Policy and peak oil (to be confirmed)
- Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez - Director General DG Agriculture - EU agriculture policy and Peak Oil (to be confirmed)Debate with Members of the EU Parliament
- Claude Turmes, MEP, Groups of the Greens/European Free Alliance in the European Parliament,
- Udo Bullmann, MEP, Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the European Parliament (to be confirmed)
- Joseph Daul, MEP, Group of the European People's Party in the European Parliament (to be confirmed)
Meeting at the Walloon Parliament in Namur (26 April 2011 - 10:00 - 15:30)
What role for R&D in solving the peak oil issue?
- How to valorise research on the effects of peak oil for urban planning? - Susan Krumdieck, University of Canterbury, New Zealand
- An analysis of the peak oil effects for the Walloon territory - Thierry Bréchet, UCL, Belgium
- Debating Scarcity: critical social science meets peak oil - Gavin Bridge, The University of Manchester, UKPeakoil and Finance
- Title to be announced - Prof. Dr. Jean-Marie Chevalier, University of Paris-Dauphine, Director of the Centre de Geopolitique de l'Energie et des Matieres Premieres.
- The effects of triple digit oil prices on the economy - Jeff Rubin, Author, former Chief Economist Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce
- Potential Impacts of Peak Oil on Financial Markets - Erik Townsend, former CEO of The Cushing Group, Private investor
Contact
- Content: editors at theoildrum dot com
- Tech support: support at theoildrum dot com
License
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Nice to see Europe take this issue seriously. It needs some thinking and policy prescriptions.
In the USA, 1/2 the people think that all that needs to be done is "Drill, baby, drill" as if god will magically implant more oil beneath our feet. I doubt most people realize that USA hit peak production way back in 1970.
spec- Or to steal a line from the third Rambo movie: "God would have mercy on you...Rambo won't". So maybe "God would have mercy on you...Mother Earth won't".
I appreciate the efforts of those who organized these meetings.
I will attend the conference at the European Parliament and will write about it in Seeking Alpha.
@lb262
Hello Lb, great that you will attend the Parliament meetings and write a synopsys for Seeking Alpha. You will need to register (public, for free) via the link following http://www.aspo9.be/registration
Rembrandt
Thanks Rembrandt, I'm registered (Lionel Badal)
Rembrandt, I find it surprising that some mainstream European politicians are actually aware of peak oil and its potential consequences. Is this awareness a new phenomnon and is it becoming more widespread? Here in Canada I haven't heard one politician even mention the word "peak oil".
Frugal - Here in the UK there is a moderate amount of press coverage for 'peak oil' in mainstream media. As well as the expected articles in the more serious news press, there have been articles in popular magazines and even references to it on that most popular of petrol-head TV shows, 'Top Gear' (albeit not that serious!).
The UK parliment has a special interest group on peak oil(APPGOPO) which is cross-party. Given it has about 20 members, this represents 1 in 25 of all UK Members of Parliment (MPs).
http://appgopo.org.uk/index.php
However, whilst I think awareness is definitely growing, the associated concepts such as the timing of peak oil, and the implications of peak on aspects of industry and society are not so well known. Peak oil is still viewed very much a problem for 'the future'.
appgopo
Unfortunately has been taken over in the main by the radical anti capitalist left. If you read their TEQs proposal you will see what I mean.
These are the sort of people we had in the last government who believe the answer to everything is massive bureaucracy paid for by massive taxes or debt.
Their policy is to have a free ration of TEQs after that people would have to pay for the right to heat their homes.
So if a family used up their TEQ allowance for the week they would have to purchase them on the market. These issue of TEQ would be reduced over time so would become more expensive, therefore poorer families would have to bid for them on the market against the richest people in the country. Guess who will not be heating their homes when it gets really cold.
This 2 Billion pound bureaucratic nightmare would also include the Taxing of all food imported into the country, which is quite a lot of extra tax on food.
These people also claim that taxes do not reduce fuel consumption, which when you compare Europe to the USA of Saudi Arabia is clearly a lie.
If the USA followed the UK and taxed their cars by amount of fuel it uses, then the people in the US would start buying fuel efficient cars.
The annual road tax for the biggest cars in the states is about $50, for the same car in the UK it is $700. This money raised could be invested in public transport.
Eventually they would get down to the fuel use of the Average European and cut daily consumption from 20 million to about 8 million.
The fact is that peak oil mitigation needs to start in the US not in one of the most fuel efficient countries in the world.
If the US does not do this everything else on this website is just cheap talk.
Cripes, man. Why do you think this site exists?
@Frugal,
The awareness of Peak Oil and perception of its consequences differs significantly per European country and within a European country. The concerned politicians about these issues are mainly at the green and liberal side of which the greens are usually more outspoken on this particular issue. To my surprise concern in Belgium is much larger than in the Netherlands (my home country), which is the key reason that these meetings could take place.
I confirm that the Dutch are less concerned than Belgian. I can see them ignoring all the radars in the Metz area (France) when they go for holidays.....they are so happy to go for sunny vacations!
I already registered for the Aspo conference….