The International Herald Tribune echoes voices from the past arguing for a closer focus on Energy Security in Europe, in the July 16 article ?A slippery European energy outlook?. But these voices represent the thinking that created the security problem in the first place. Energy security is, no doubt, of paramount interest, but it is necessary to understand that the first step in creating a truly secure system is to reduce the demand says Hans Nilsson and Rod Janssen.

The new EU-commissioner, Andris Pielbags, has understood something that his predecessor did not. Energy security depends on the amount of energy you use. The less you demand the easier it is to supply and find different sources for the supply. Further the less you use the less is the impact on environment and the easier it is to find renewable (environmentally friendly) sources. Therefore it is possible to meet more than one objective at the same time if you choose the right measures. It is possible to kill more than one bird with one stone - if you pick the right stone. The stone he has chosen is ?Energy Efficiency? and has turned the course radically in his directorate in Brussels, which can be seen in the recently published green book ?Doing more with less?. And therefore the European road is far from being slippery.

This strategy certainly allows for countries to act according to their own circumstances and use the resources they have rather than harmonising to a common mean. Let them adhere to a common functional target like 25% renewables for electricity and let the Nordic countries use their vast forests and the southern their abundant sun for the purpose. The IEA has successfully for over 30 years applied a functional target for their oil reserves and it works.

Many of the voices in the International Herald Tribune are echoes of the past. Asking for strategies where countries and regions try to get access to other countries resources instead of getting out of the dependence of fossil fuels. Claiming that focusing on energy security excludes solving e.g. the environmental problems instead of recognising the enormous potential for energy efficiency. Demanding more of vulnerable infrastructure connections instead of introducing demand response from the customers to avoid perilous overload in energy systems. All that belongs to the forces that created the problems we have today with over consumption and dependence of outdated technologies. If there ever was a slippery road this was the one.

Commissioner Pielbags has certainly a heavy task before him but he has started very well.

Hans Nilsson
FourFact
Stockholm, Sweden
http://www.fourfact.com

Rod Janssen
President,
HELIO International, Paris, France
http://www.helio-international.org/