Videos for the General Public

Intelligent shopping: Energy efficient appliances (December 2006)
The European consumers are not always fully aware of the advantages offered by the new electrical appliances with low energy consumption (washing machines, refrigerators, televisions, DVD-players etc). Making an intelligent choice is essential when buying new equipment. The industry pushed by the European Commission has invested in new products offering excellent performance and limiting at the same time the impact on the environment.

(9'03")

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Better and cleaner urban transport for Europe (September 2006)
Traffic jams, pollution, waste of time and energy – numerous cities are faced with problems such as harmful emissions and lack of efficient mobility for users.
There is no one magic formula to solve this. Solutions integrate technological advances such as hydrogen and biofuel powered buses with transport policy measures such as traffic management, an example being the restricted access to the centre of London.
Cities are a buzz of activity. Apart from its financial support for sustainable mobility initiatives taken by cities, the European Union works in partnership with them, particularly through the CIVITAS network, in order to stimulate the exchange of know-how and experience.

(15')

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Biofuels to replace oil (January 2006)
Facing the growth of CO2 emissions from transport and the difficulty to find alternatives to the traditional fuels for transport, Europe is proposing an immediate answer. It is encouraging the replacement of diesel and petrol by biodiesel and bioethanol - clean, renewable fuels derived from vegetable matter such as rape seed, cereals and sugar beet.
Europe set as indicative objective the replacement of 5,75% of conventional transport fuels by biofuels by 2010. Much effort remains to be done to reach it. Various policies are possible, such as the detaxation of biofuels or the obligation put on suppliers to put a minimum percentage of biofuels on the market. Europe is committed to a truly comprehensive policy on biofuels, which take into account all the different aspects, including those linked to sustainable development and to trade exchanges with its partners.

(11’23”)

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Jämtland: a county fuelled by biomass (November 2005)
In Jämtland County, a sparely populated and densely wooded are in central Sweden, more than 60% of all heat and power is derived from renewable sources. The county’s aim is to become a 100% renewable energy region by 2015. This ambitious target can be reached this thanks to immense natural resources, notably woods and forests covering 99% of the Jämtland’s territory and being an extraordinary source of biomass.
Jämtland county has made an impressive progress in using the biomass for heating and power generation. In its only city Östersund, the combined heat and power plant fuelled with biomass supplies 25 000 households. Similar small-scale clean heating solutions are applied in villages across Jämtland. The County’s Energy Agency makes regular presentations about the benefits of bio-fuels in Jämtland’s 8 municipalities. And the efforts are paying off – consumers convert overwhelmingly to alternative heating mostly derived from biomass. Since 1997 the use of heating oil has decreased by 40%.

(8’42”)

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Barcelona: Sustainable Energy City (July 2005)
Everywhere in Europe, energy consumption increases, yet our supply of fossil fuels will not last forever and we need to find sustainable solutions. Several European cities have focused on renewable energies and have developed global concepts of sustainability. One of these, Barcelona has a unique regulation in the area of solar energy: the "Solar Ordinance". This decrees that all new buildings should use thermal solar energy for their hot water use. But that's not all. Everywhere around the city, the municipality promotes photovoltaic energy, a technology which allows the generation of electricity through the conversion of sunshine. Thanks to a collective political ambition, this Catalan capital is achieving a far more rational use of energy. This kind of initiatives is supported by different programmes of the European Commission, including the Campaign “Sustainable Energy Europe 2005-2008”. This Campaign will give a strong signal to political opinion makers, to private and public investors as well as to European citizens: to invest in renewable energies.

(8’30”)

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Energy use in buildings: Use it better, use it less (June 2005)
In Europe 40% of our energy use is consumed in buildings, more than by industry or transport. That is a lot. It is too much. There is great potential for energy savings in this field, often at little cost. A new European directive contributes to improving the energy performance of buildings. It provides, for example, for: the application of minimum standards of energy efficiency to buildings in every country in the EU; the creation of a certificate to inform buyers or tenants of the energy performance of the building they hope to occupy; the posting in large, frequented, public buildings of energy performance certificates for information.

(14’37”)

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