Federal Environment Minister concludes agreements with Spain, France and other countries
At the International Conference for Renewable Energies in Bonn, the German Government has succeeded in tightening the network for the global increase in the use of renewable energies. Important Mediterranean countries including Spain, Italy, Israel and the Arab countries Jordan, Algeria, Morocco and Egypt have joined the Global Market Initiative launched by the Federal Environment Ministry. On Friday, Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin concluded additional agreements with Spain and France.
The cooperation with Spain is a contribution to the International Action Programme: It aims to further improve successful national instruments for the support of renewable energies. Germany and Spain have similar regulations under which producers receive legally guaranteed prices for electricity from renewables and can therefore work economically.
France is also committing to renewable energies. The French Industry Minister Patrick Devedjian and Federal Environment Minister Jürgen Trittin agreed today to strengthen cooperation on wind energy utilisation within the German-French growth initiative. The main aim is to promote application-oriented research projects and production processes of German-French companies or research consortia. "We will proceed together, from research and technology development to production," said Federal Environment Minister Trittin.
An international working group which was formed today also aims to accelerate the market entry of renewable energy technologies for electricity generation. Under the umbrella of the Internati-onal Energy Agency (IEA), Germany, France, Denmark, Italy, Ireland and Norway aim to analyse the investment barriers facing renewables and discuss steps for overcoming them. These steps include the potential for cost reduction and the optimisation of market introduction strategies. In addition to the IEA members (27 industrialised countries) the working group is also open to par-ticipants from developing countries.