From:        info at partnersforinnovation.com
Subject:     Partners for Innovation newsletter October 2008
Date:     October 2, 2008

www.partnersforinnovation.com

NEWSLETTER

October 2008

Al Gore on 14 October in the Netherlands
Al Gore will visit the Netherlands on 14 October, two years after his movie “An Inconvenient Truth” was released. Gore will speak to more than 2,000 attendants in the Event Centre in Aalsmeer. Initiator of Gore’s visit is Maurits Groen, director of MGMC, with whom Partners for Innovation have a strong collaboration on climate issues. See for example our joint website www.co2-neutraal.nu. Interested in attending Gore’s visit? Ideas for side-events? Contact Peter Vissers or visit the website of MGMC.

More information: Peter Vissers

Partners for Innovation hosts Biogas Initiative for Africa
The foundation “Biogas for Better Life: An African Initiative” was launched in Nairobi in 2007. The Initiative aims to install 2 million household-level biogas plants in 10 years. The ultimate objective is to develop a sustainable, commercial biogas sector, which will in turn improve the lives and livelihoods of families in Africa. National biogas program feasibility studies have been completed or are underway in some 15 African countries; biogas programs were recently launched in Rwanda and Ethiopia. The Initiative is supported by a large number of organisations including the African Development Bank, GTZ, SNV and the Shell Foundation. Partners for Innovation will host “Biogas for Africa”.

More information: Emiel Hanekamp

Renewable energy in developing countries: recipes for increased impact of European R&D
Together with its partners IT Power India, Nano Energy (South Africa) and Esenerg (Paraguay), Partners for Innovation has investigated the role of European R&D in furthering renewable energy in developing countries. The project team held its final workshop in Brussels on 29 September 2008 and shared its conclusions with representatives of the EC and European industry. The team demonstrated that R&D is an enabling factor in furthering the implementation of renewable energy in emerging and developing countries. R&D also helps in providing EU industry access to markets in these countries. The impact of European R&D could however be much higher and the project team has formulated several recommendations to achieve this. Interested? The project’s draft synthesis report is available here. Your opinion, suggestions and comments are highly appreciated!

More information: Peter Karsch

Nature based composites at the Dutch Design Week
The seventh edition of the Dutch Design Week, the largest design event in the Netherlands, will be held in Eindhoven from 18 to 26 October 2008. NPSP and Partners for Innovation have seized this opportunity to present the outcomes of their research on new applications for nature based composites. Project partners are Nedtrain, Leolux, RAU, Van de Bilt Seeds and Flax, ATO Compose, Spring Time and IVAM. The project is co-financed by SenterNovem. The presentation will take place on Tuesday 21 October at the “The Flowering City” location in Eindhoven. Interested? Contact Siem Haffmans or register via the website.

More information: Siem Haffmans

Role and impact of SMEs in energy research projects
The EC has commissioned Partners for Innovation to study the role and impact of Small and Medium sized Enterprises (SMEs) in energy research. Focus is on presenting a comprehensive picture of SME participation and non-participation in energy research under FP5 and FP6, and on providing specific and operational recommendations on actions that can be taken by the EC services. The project will last for eight months; project activities include statistical analysis, projects assessment, desk research, participant surveys and interviews.

More information: Carolien van Merksteijn

Editorial: good and bad news about climate change
News about climate change is like news on the credit crisis: every day you think that we have had the worst, but then, the next day, you understand things are even worse. This week’s headlines included news that the global CO2 emission has increased four times quicker since 2000 than in the previous decade, according to a report of the Global Carbon Project. This is faster than the worst case scenarios predicted. Another report, released by the EEA, told us that Europe needs to intensify actions to adapt to climate change impacts because of the challenges that Europe already encounters today: increasing temperatures, changing precipitation, rising sea level, more intense and frequent extreme weather events and melting glaciers, ice sheets and Arctic sea ice.

However, there is also good news about climate change. To start with, the debate on climate change has completely shifted over the past five years, from whether we need to respond, to how we should respond. Secondly, the costs for a dramatic increase of carbon productivity, which is the obvious way forward, are likely to be manageable: in the order of 0.6 to 1.4 percent of global GDP by 2030 according to a recent McKinsey report. More good news: the renewable energy sector continues to show phenomenal growth rates, higher than any other energy sector, as shown by REN21’s status reports, our work in the RECIPES project and recent market research that we performed in Germany. And last but not least: energy efficiency has made a remarkable jump upwards on all of our personal priority lists, due to high energy prices.

More and more public and private organisations have decided to become climate neutral, through a mix of measures related to energy efficiency, use of renewable energy and investment in compensation projects. They do so because they consider that this is important for society and for their organisation’s own continuity.

For Partners for Innovation, climate change has been a focal point since the start. We have been climate neutral since 2006 and assist our clients in becoming climate neutral. In comparison to some years ago, the options to lower the carbon footprint are rapidly increasing. We believe that change towards low carbon technologies will advance much quicker than is foreseen by most people today. Who anticipated the success of the worldwide web or mobile phones before they really took off?

Emiel Hanekamp, director and co-founder Partners for Innovation.