While the European Council discusses the Energy- Climate change package and the international community is meeting in Poznan, for the United Nations Climate Change Conference, this MEMO presents examples of EU-funded research projects which will help fight climate change and reduce CO2 emissions.
What's the EU funded research contribution to environmental research?
The European Union is contributing significantly to environmental research with its main financial tool, the European Research Framework Programme (FP7). FP7 has a budget of 54 bn budget (2007-2013) various categories of funding. Environmental-related research projects are funded under the Environment theme as well as under many of other themes, such as Transport, Energy and Nanotechnology.
Out of the 32 365m of the FP7 Cooperation programme, 1800m are dedicated to Environment (including climate change), 2300m to Energy and 4160m to Transport.
However, research on environmental topics can also be funded under other FP7 categories such as infrastructures, grants for researchers, etc. but this is more difficult to evaluate a priori.
What kind of research projects are funded in the Environment theme?
Within the Cooperation Programme, the dedicated Environment theme includes climate change research and has funding of 1800m for 2007 2013.
Research funded under this theme aims primarily at advancing our knowledge of the interactions between the climate, biosphere, ecosystems and human activities. Particular emphasis is given to: quantification of climate change, feedbacks advanced climate modelling, climate change impacts on vulnerable ecosystems, humans and key economic sectors, identification and assessment of adaptation and mitigation strategies.
Research aims also at developing new technologies, in order to reduce the environmental impact of human activities and protect the environment. This includes, for example, water technologies, soil protection technologies, waste treatment technologies, technologies for the built environment, and technologies for mitigation and adaptation to climate change.
In environmental research, FP7 has also increased the emphasis on international research collaboration, which is seen as the best way to deal with global challenges like climate change, as well as to help developing countries to improve their research capabilities. Issues of high importance to developing countries are being addressed such as avoiding deforestation, climate change and water resources availability, climate change and security, state-of-the art climate projections at local/regional scale to better assess the impacts and provide cost-effective adaptation measures.
Research actions will also take into account sustainable consumption and production, renewable energies and low-carbon and resource-efficient products in order to enhance the development and uptake of environment friendly technologies and services.
A total of 632 proposals requested EU funding from FP7's 200m budget for 2007.
Examples of environmental research projects can be found in the following website under 'Research on Climate Change': http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/index_en.cfm?pg=climate
How does energy research contribute to fighting climate change?
Without the development and adoption of new technologies, it would not be feasible for countries to meet their internationally agreed commitments such as those laid out in the Kyoto Protocol. Only through strong investment in research will Europe achieve its 2020 target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent, ensure that the EU energy mix contains 20 per cent of renewable energy sources and reduce EU global primary energy use by 20 per cent.
Within the Cooperation Programme, research in the Energy theme is dedicated to develop green technologies and is supported by a budget of 2300m.
One key initiative is the European Strategic Energy Technology Plan (SET-Plan) which provides a blueprint for Europe to develop a world-class portfolio of affordable, clean, efficient and low emission energy technologies. The Work Programme 2009 of DG Research will take into account the priorities and technologies identified in the SET-Plan. In particular a large effort is dedicated to research on second generation biofuels. In the 2010 Work Programme there will be a reinforced focus on the key challenges of the SET-Plan, including anticipating the objectives of the European Industrial Initiatives in wind power, solar power, bio-energy, nuclear fission, carbon capture and storage, and electrical networks.
In some cases, green energy technologies require bringing together the resources of different themes. The joint call for proposals on biorefineries launched last September created a common pool of 57 million for multidisciplinary research, drawing together funds from the Food, Agriculture and Fisheries; Biotechnology, Nanosciences, Nanotechnologies, Materials and New Production Technologies; Energy and the Environment themes. Biorefinery is the sustainable processing of biomass into both energy (biofuels, power and heat) and a range of more valuable products (chemicals, materials, food and feed).
http://ec.europa.eu/research/index.cfm?pg=newsalert&lg=en&year=2008&na=na-030908-3
The European Commission is also encouraging public-private partnership in this area. A Joint Technology Initiatives (JTI) on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen has been launched by the Commission and the private sector in October 2008 to fight greenhouse gas emissions with the introduction of new technologies. The JTI on Fuel Cells and Hydrogen works on the introduction of these carbon free technologies into the market with a budget for research of nearly 1 billion for the next six years.
Examples of current research projects funded by FP6 to make energy production greener:
- Making solar energy more effective
Scientists of the Commission-financed project FULLSPECTRUM have developed photovoltaic (PV) multi-junction (MJ) solar cells which are able to convert 39,7 % of the energy of sun light into electricity. This is the highest percentage ever reached in Europe. The main barrier to large-scale deployment of PV systems is the high production cost of electricity, due to the significant capital investment costs. Research is engaged to reduce manufacturing costs and to raise the efficiency of the cells. Today conventional PV cells made of silicon are converting only a fraction of the solar light spectrum around 17%. FULLSPECTRUM is an integrated project involving 19 European public and industrial research centres from seven EU Member States, as well as Russia and Switzerland. From the overall budget of 14,7 Million the European Commission financed 8.4 Million.
- CO2 capture and storage
The CASTOR (CO2 Capture and storage)-project is working on the capture and geological storage of 10% of European CO2 emissions, or 30% of the emissions of large industrial facilities, mainly conventional power stations. The costs of capture and separation of CO2 should come down from actual 60/tonne CO2 to 20-30/tonne. The results of the project will help to make energy systems cleaner and reach internationally agreed emission targets. It will also contribute to European security of supply because it will be possible to continue to use coal-fired plants as carbon-low infrastructure for energy. The facility built by the project at a coal-fired power station in Denmark is the largest in the world. The 30-partner team involving 10 EU Member States plus Norway also uses geological modelling, reservoir simulation and seismic simulation to illustrate how the captured CO2 can be safely stored underground. The budget is about 15.8 million, the EC funding about 8.5 million.
- Looking towards the wind power of tomorrow
In order to realise a significant contribution of wind energy to the global electricity supply (e.g. 20%), in the future, very large wind turbines with an installed power of over 10 MW each, operating as wind 'power plants' (often called wind farms) of several hundreds of megawatts capacity will become necessary.
The European project UpWind looks towards the design of very large wind turbines (8-10MW), both onshore and offshore. The challenges inherent to the creation of wind farms of several hundreds MW request the highest possible standards in design, because future wind turbine rotors may have a diameter of over 150 meters. The UpWind consortium, composed of 40 partners, brings together the most advanced European specialists of the wind industry.
What is the role of Transport research?
Under the Kyoto Protocol, the EU is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 8% of the 1990 level by 2008-2012. However, if current trends continue, emissions will go up instead, due to increased traffic.
Research funded under the Transport Theme will allow greener and safer transport, supported by a budget of 4.16 billion over seven years.
For surface transport, research will aim to develop technologies for reduced pollution (air including greenhouse gases, water and soil) and environmental impact.
In air transport, research will focus on furthering green engine technologies including alternative fuels technology.
Clean air transport was identified as a key research orientation when selecting topics for the new European Joint Technology Initiatives. The 'Clean Sky' JTI will demonstrate and validate the technology breakthroughs that are necessary to reach the following environmental goals by 2020: 50% reductions of CO2 emissions, 80% reduction of NOx (nitrogen oxide) emissions, and 50% reduction of external noise. 1.6 billion, equally shared between the European Commission and industry, will be spent on these objectives over the period 2008 2013.
Examples of current research projects funded by FP6 to make road transport greener:
- POMEROL a research project led by Saft to develop high-powered, low-cost lithium-ion batteries by using a breakthrough in materials. The materials and batteries will be used for fuel-cell hybrid and conventional hybrid drive train automotive applications. POMEROL has a budget of 4.9 M, of which 2.5M comes from the EC. It involves 7 partners from public research institutes and private companies in 3 Member States and Switzerland.
- FELICITAS a project to develop fuel-cell systems that are capable of meeting the demands of heavy-duty transport for road, rail and marine applications. FELICITAS has a budget of 126 M, of which 8M comes from the EC. It involves 15 public and private partners from 8 Member States.
- HYICE a research project led by BMW for the optimisation of hydrogen powered internal combustion engines. HYICE has a budget of 7.7 M , of which 5M comes from the EC. It involves 11 public and private partners from 4 Member States.
Further examples of transport projects can be found in the following website, under 'Transport impacts on climate change & ozone depletion': http://ec.europa.eu/research/environment/index_en.cfm?pg=climate
In this website, it also includes examples of research which will help to understand the likely impacts of climate change and allow to find the best ways to mitigate their effects and adapt to minimise their negative impacts.