Warsaw, 01/12/2011 (Agence Europe) - In parallel to the 17th UN climate conference in Durban, Poland welcomed experts to discuss the issue of the Strategic Energy Technology Plan, the SET plan, on 28 and 29 November. “A major signal is being sent out to us today from Warsaw and Durban”, said the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek. He said that the future of energy and its challenges would be won or lost by new technologies: “Protecting the climate will only be possible if we base our actions in the field of energy on advanced technological solutions”.
“I welcome the place given over to science in this debate, particularly as we want the energy sector to be one of the major planks of the eighth EU framework programme for which preparations are currently underway”, said Professor Maria Elzbieta Orlowska, Secretary of State representing the Ministry of Science and Education. In order to move towards this, she has not ruled out a revision of the funding of research on energy projects, saying: “Funding should possibly focus on well-defined objectives, in order to increase the chances of progress”.
For his part, Economy Minister Waldemar Pawlak stressed financial support for European industrial initiatives: “The objective of this conference on the SET Plan is to find long-term financial resources to develop energy technologies".
A declaration from Warsaw, on Europe's financial involvement in research and development in energy technologies in 2014-2020, was signed. Implementation of the SET Plan will mean investment of around €8 billion a year, for the next 10 years. This expense was justified by the president of the European Parliament, Jerzy Buzek, who said: “We do not want to focus just on the current crisis. We wish to design, for the next 10-20 years to come, worthwhile solutions to assure our future development. New energy solutions will help to move the whole of the economy forward”. (VW/transl.fl)