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1995
Journal Article
Titel
The local energy policy in EU countries - a comparison of activities of utilities and the influence of local authorities
Abstract
The study analyses the institutional obstacles to a local energy policy in each member state of the EC. A theoretical analysis revealed 7 different categories of institutional obstacles: basis economic and energy data; structure of public utility industry; structure of public utility regulation; activites of public utilities; local energy plans: role of local authorities in energy policy and activities of local authorities. Based on an extensive questionnaire executed in each member state an overall evaluation indicates that the situation seems to be favourable to local energy policy in Denmark and Germany and quite good in the Netherlands, Belgium and Italy. It is not good in France, Spain and the United Kingdom and has to be judged poor in Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Luxembourg. Where are science and technology heading in the decades ahead? All leading industrial nations have been looking for plausible answers to this question. Government agencies and industry--particulary in Japan and the US--have been carrying out technology studies in recent years to gather facts and arguments for their research planning. An interdisciplinary working group commissioned by the German Federal Research Minister brought together several R&D programme managing agencies under prepare a futures study of science and technology in the German context.