BRUSSELS, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- The European Parliament and European Commission co-organised a high-level conference on Tuesday to discuss best practices in transitioning towards more sustainable energy sources, job creation, growth and investment.
Before the conference kicked off, President of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani stated, "The European Parliament is at the forefront of the fight against climate change with more ambitious investments and targets for renewables and energy efficiency including the creation of a true single market for energy."
Political leaders, policy makers, the investor community, energy market participants and other stakeholders gathered here and the discussion focused on transition to clean and efficient energy at local level, cross-border electricity interconnections and investment in renewable energies.
Jerry Brown, Governor of the State of California, the United States, also attended this meeting. Just before the conference, Tajani welcomed him by saying, "I am convinced that the reluctance of the U.S. Administration will not prevent growing cooperation between us and many U.S. cities and states."
The panel emphasised that large amount of public and private investment in clean energy is needed for Europe to meet its ambitious climate targets, which were agreed as part of the Paris Agreement, while boosting growth and the creation of jobs.
Regarding this, Miguel Arias-Canete, Commissioner for Climate Action and Energy, European Commission, pointed out that we will implement Paris Agreement, so we have to manage public and private investment together.
Jyrki Katainen, Vice President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, European Commission, also said that at the European Union's (EU) level, an extra of over 100 billion euros (115.9 billion U.S. dollars) are needed annually from 2021 onwards to reach the 2030 climate and energy goals.
Werner Hoyer, President of the European Investment Bank, shared this view. "We need to mobilise the private sector to achieve this objectives," said he.
It is estimated that in order to reach the EU 2030 energy and climate targets, about 379 billion euros (439 billion dollars) of investment will be needed every year between 2020 and 2030, mostly in energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, and infrastructure.
During the meeting, Governor Brown of California said that it is one of the threats that will determine our future, so we must continue to bring down emissions from vehicles and increase the speed of developing electric vehicles.
He also noted that the commitment of China to require a fixed growing percentage of electric cars from European, American and other automobile companies means there is no turning back, and now we have to transform to a zero carbon world and must to do it quicker. (1 euro = 1.159 U.S. dollars)
