Member States expected to increase efforts

Different sources of funding are considered, from public and private sectors at national and EU level, to be used in a coordinated way, which will also help to push forward a fast growing industrial sector and to create jobs. The European Commission calls on the European Council and Parliament to invite Member States to increase their efforts to support the financing of low carbon technologies, including through an appropriate focus of support instruments. "The level of Community funding required would depend, inter alia, on the interest of Member States to co-finance the SET-Plan initiatives, through Joint Programming on a variable geometry basis. Such a process will allow different partnerships of Member States to cooperate on those technologies of most interest to them, depending upon their preferred energy mix, indigenous resource base and exploitation potential," the recent EC Communication "Investing in the Development of Low Carbon Technologies (SET-Plan)" says.

Improving the coherence of public programmes

At the same time, in order to mobilise sufficient resources to finance large-scale demonstrations, new ways to combine resources from different actors and instruments, such as grants, loans and loan guarantees, would need to be developed. The European Investment Bank (EIB) could play a pivotal role in improving the coordination and continuity of available funding, as illustrated by the Risk Sharing Finance Facility (RSFF) which combines resources from the FP7 budget with those of the EIB to finance higher-risk R&D projects (including in the energy sector), the Commission suggests

Source and further information: www.era.gv.at.