IP/07/283

Brussels, 6 March 2007

World renowned experts to advise President Barroso on energy and climate change

A newly established Advisory Group of world renowned experts will advise the President of the European Commission, José Manuel Barroso on energy and climate change issues. The advisors, who act in a personal capacity, will meet as a group for the first time today. They are drawn from a range of different countries and have expertise and different perspectives on both energy policy and climate change.

President of the Commission, José Manuel Barroso, said: "Energy and climate change are two of the global challenges we face. Europe is part of the solution and I am determined that the European Union will maintain its leadership role, including in the G8. I want therefore the best external advisors possible to provide independent advice as we continue down the path towards a low carbon economy. I am delighted that so many world renowned experts have agreed to give their time to advise me on these issues".

The Advisory Group is a mix of energy and climate experts, with a range of disciplines, coming from a range of different member states. The members are as follows.

Cesar Dopazo, Professor, Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología de Materiales y Fluidos, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza

Nicolas Hulot, Founder, Fondation Nicolas Hulot, Paris

Claudia Kemfert, Professor, Deutsche Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung (DIW), Berlin

Allan Larsson, Chairman of the Board, University of Lund, Sweden

Claude Mandil, Executive Director, International Energy Agency (IEA), Paris

Carlo Rubbia, Professor, CERN, and Nobel Prize Laureate in Physics 1984, Geneva

Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, Director, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Berlin

Sir Nicholas Stern, Adviser to the UK Government on the economics of climate change and development, and former Chief Economist of the World Bank, London

Peter Sutherland, Chairman, BP plc, London

José Viriato Soromenho Marques, Professor, Department of Philosophy, Universidade de Lisboa

Michael Zammit Cutajar, Ambassador for Climate Change, Malta, and former Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, Geneva

The first meeting of the Advisory Group will focus on the Spring European Council. Subsequent ones will look wider, as the Commission moves forward with legislative proposals and discussions turn to the international context, including the forthcoming G8 meeting.