INFORSE-Europe

INFORSE-Europe

Founded	1994, (Bylaws) 2002 (Registration)
Founder	European NGOs
Type	Network of European NGOs, grassroot organisations
Focus	sustainable energy environmentalism
Location	Aarhus,Denmark
Area served	Europe
Method	newsletter, education, research, lobbying
Members	85 NGOs from 35 European countries
Key people	Ursel Beckmann (president) Gunnar Boye Olesen, Ion Zamfir (coordinators)
Slogan	100 % renewables
Website	http://www.inforse.org/europe

INFORSE- Europe is an international, non-profit organisation (NGO) network of European environmental organizations promoting sustainable energy development within Europe; and worldwide in cooperation with other INFORSE regions. INFORSE-Europe consists of 85 NGO members in 35 European countries.

Activities

INFORSE-Europe develops scenarios for a transition to a 100% renewable energy supply by 2050, lately by 2030. The scenario model's name is INFORSE Vision 2050.,.^[1][2] The models are developed for global, EU-27,^[3][4][5] and several European countries together with members like Denmark,^[6][7][8] Hungary,^[9][10] Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania, Estland and others. The UK member, Center for Alternative Technology, developed the ZeroCarbonBritain.^[11] To reach local or regional 100% renewable energy, energy planning was facilitated by members in three regions of Belarus,^[12][13] and in Poland with local public participation. ^[14] To facilitate networking among NGOs and researchers the Low Carbon Societies Network was established initiated together with Germanwatch, CAN-France, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and CIRED in France.^[15]

The network maintains a publicly open online database of NGO's and governmental and research organizations,^[16] and organises NGO seminars,^[17] events at EU Green Week^[18] and '09,^[19] EUSEW,^[20][21] and at the Conferences of UNFCCC, and at Rio+20 together with other NGOs.

Many of the members are active in education. Therefore, collection of school materials on energy and climate,^[22] and of sustainable energy successes,^[23] were developed as well as an online course (DIERET),^[24] and has cooperation with SPARE, a sustainable energy education project in 16 countries.^[25]

INFORSE-Europe is registered in the EU Transparency Register since 2008,^[26] and participates in the Coolproducts coalition of European environmental NGOs ( European Environmental Bureau, BEUC, European Environmental Citizens’ Organisation for Standardisation, CAN-Europe, FOE-Europe and others) lobbying for ambitious EU Ecodesign and energy labelling directive regulations.^[27] Positions are prepared together with these organisations.,^[28] ,^[29] ,^{[30] [31]} The network's opinions are also collected on a web-based resources on EU policy,^[32]

Publications

• Sustainable Energy News published since 1992.^[33]
• DIERET Online Education in English,^[34] Russian,^[35] and Slovakian.^[36]
• NGO Views: Climate Change Policy in New EU Countries and Macedonia, published in 2010.^[37]
• Sustainable Energy Handbook for NGOs and Local Groups (INFORSE), published in 1993 in Danish, English, Polish, Hungarian, and Russian.^[38]

History

INFORSE was established by NGOs at the Earth Summit (Global Forum), which was a parallel forum to the UNCED Conference in 1992. INFORSE has consultative status to United Nations' ECOSOC since 1998 and at UNFCCC since 2002. INFORSE-Europe made its Bylaws in 1994.,^[39] and became officially registered in Denmark in 2002. A five-member Board and two coordinators are elected at the bi-annual General Assembly since then. The INFORSE-Europe became Campaign Associates to the Sustainable Energy Europe Campaign Initiative in 2005. European NGO Energy Policy Seminars are organised since 1992. INFORSE-Europe received the European Solar Prize from EUROSOLAR in 2009 in the category: One world cooperation.^[40]

Members

Among the 85 members from 35 European countries^[41] there are Danish Organisation for Renewable Energy (OVE), Nordic Folkecenter for Renewable Energy,^[42] Samsø Energy Academy in Denmark,^[43] Centre for Alternative Technology in the United Kingdom, Norwegian Society for the Conservation of Nature (FoE) in Norway; GERES, CLER, Helio from France; Polish Ecological Club (PKE-OG) and KISE from Poland; Atgaja, Green Policy Institute in Lithuania; Mother Earth, Brabant Ecologi, APERe, EREF in Belgium; Zelena Akcija (FoE) in Croatia, Za Zemiata For The Earth in Bulgaria; Eco-svest, Proaktiva, Front21/42 in Macedonia; Green Movement (LGM) in Latvia, and ARIN, TERRA, and Prietenii Pamantului (For the Earth) in Romania.

References

External links

• INFORSE's website
• INFORSE-Europe's website