Anders Eldrup, Chairman of the Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster, will be the chairman of the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition, which will be held in Copenhagen 3-7 June 2013. In his introductory message, Eldrup addressed the global environmental issues to which biomass can provide solutions in a sustainable way. These questions and the respective answers will heat-up the debate along the full week of the conference, which will constitute as usual a prime event and a unique networking opportunity for the global biomass community.
Here below Eldrup’s full message.
Dear colleagues
It is a great honour for me to welcome you to the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition in Copenhagen 2013. Ahead of us we have many important challenges:
- How do we secure a sufficient supply of energy for the future? No doubt bio is an important part of the answer
- With more and more renewable energy in our power system, volatility and balancing becomes increasingly challenging. Bio will be an important part of the solution to this
- How can we handle and treat our waste – and in particular the biowaste – so that more is recycled? Biowaste is bound to become more important in an increasingly resource constrained world
- How can we develop technologies where we can use biomaterials in new areas, not least those that today are based on oil?
- The discovery of new fossil energy supplies such as oil sands and shale gas puts pressure on CO2 reduction and on the competitiveness of renewable energy production.
- How can we convince the political community that biomass can be used in a sustainable way?
I am confident, that the 21st European Biomass Conference and Exhibition where academia, business and public sector meet will do its part to deliver good answers to these challenges.
I am also convinced that the conference by bringing the latest science to a wider audience will help to keep up the momentum in reducing CO2 emissions, both in terms of the technological development and the political goals.
The City of Copenhagen has set the goal to be CO2-neutral in 2025 – as the first capital in the world. Therefore Copenhagen is sort of a testbed, which hopefully can give inspiration to many of you.
Also outside of Copenhagen new biomass-based solutions are on show, which I hope you will have the opportunity to visit. I look forward to see you in Copenhagen in June.
Anders Eldrup
Chairman of the Copenhagen Cleantech Cluster
