EU, Arab world seek cooperation on green energy

Brussels - The European Union and the governments of Egypt, Israel, Syria and much of the Arab world kicked off discussions Friday on the launch of a common green energy market. The occasion was a conference in Brussels organized by the European Commission. It was attended by energy and foreign ministers from both sides of the Mediterranean Sea and the Gulf region.

"Taken as a whole, the EU, the Mediterranean and the Gulf have one of the world's biggest potential markets for renewable energy," EU External Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner told the conference.

"Our cooperation makes sense on a number of levels - the EU has significant experience and know-how in renewable energies, whilst the potential for renewable energies in its Southern partners is enormous," Ferrero-Waldner said.

The EU has set itself the ambitious target of reducing its emissions of greenhouse gas by 20 per cent below their 1990s levels by 2020. To do so, it wants 20 per cent of its energy needs to come from renewable sources such as solar or wind power.

This week, the commission warned that those targets will not be met unless current levels of investment in renewable sources are increased by 50 billion euros (73 billion dollars) over the next decade.

One way of obtaining green energy is for the EU to link up with its southern neighbors, so as to allow it to buy cheaper solar energy from sun-bathed countries in North Africa and the Middle East.

"While we will produce renewable energy ourselves, we will also have to buy this renewable energy. And we see that there is a great deal of interest in the southern Mediterranean countries and in the Gulf, for their own markets, but also for export. So here is a situation that could benefit both sides," Ferrero-Waldner told reporters.

The commissioner called on delegates to explore common rules on regulating such a market and to find ways of financing research aimed at making renewables economically viable.

Equally importantly, governments would have to start work on building the expensive infrastructures needed to link up the sides' energy grids - so called "interconnectors".

The EU and its southern neighbors have long talked about cooperating on the energy front. In July 2008, for instance, EU leaders agreed to build 20 gigawatts worth of renewable power generation around the Mediterranean Sea by 2020.

In the meantime, the EU has already funded a number of related projects, including a solar and wind energy resource atlas in the southern and eastern Mediterranean, and a study aimed at identifying and prioritizing potential demonstration sites for wind and concentrated solar projects in Algeria, Tunisia, Jordan and Turkey.

Ferrero-Waldner said delegates at the conference had reacted "enthusiastically" to the idea of a common green energy market. But she conceded that its realization would require plenty of time.

"It will take time. But we have to start somewhere," the commissioner told reporters.