EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs and US Secretary for Energy Steven Chu attended the launch of a new EU-US Energy Council on 4 November in Washington DC, aiming to boost transatlantic energy cooperation.
The EU said that the Energy Council will provide a “new framework for deepening the transatlantic dialogue” on issues such as energy supply security and the transition to low carbon energy sources while strengthening scientific collaboration on energy technologies.
“The Energy Council is a timely initiative in the context of growing global concerns on energy security and the important role that the energy sector has in climate change. Elevating these discussions between us to a political level underscores the importance we both attach to this area of our relationship,” Piebalgs said.
The council will meet annually, alternating between the EU and the US and report to the EU-US Summit. The EU will be represented by the EU Commissioners for External Relations, for Energy, and for Science and Research, as well as the EU
Presidency, while the US side will be represented by the Secretaries of State and of Energy.
“I want to see energy security and climate change centre stage in all our partnerships around the world, and it is the right moment to step up our cooperation with the US. As two of the greatest consumers of energy, we have a responsibility to work together to find solutions to some of the most challenging questions of our day,” EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.
Research Commissioner Janez Potocnik noted that “scientific cooperation to foster development of low carbon energy technologies will be a key pillar of this new EU-US Energy Council. The inclusion of research in this bilateral cooperation is also a political recognition of the importance of science to address our common challenges.”
Examples of energy cooperation between the EU and the US to date include the initialing of a new Energy Star EU-US Agreement on the coordination of energy-efficient labeling programmes for office equipment, and cooperation on the development of energy technologies such as hydrogen or the ITER project for nuclear fusion.