Dear Delegates,

We are honored to chair the Committee on Energy, Industry and Research.

Our complicated topic gets more and more important as the EU tries to stabilize their own economic area and gain more independence from imports. 

Even though the question might appear hard to solve, we are confident that you will find access to the issue and avenues of thought that will lead to your own answers.

We look forward to working with you and trying to find sustainable solutions.

See you in Vienna! 

To help your preparation, please read these articles:

https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2012/jun/19/renewable-energy-consumption-eu-targets

http://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2015/06/economist-explains-1

The two above articles explain the topic in a brief and informative way, so we recommend you have a look at them.

https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/energy-strategy

http://ec.europa.eu/clima/citizens/eu_en

https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/renewable-energy

These three links by the European Commission offer a good overview of the EU’s plans for the near future

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Energy_production_and_imports

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php/Renewable_energy_statistics 

Two further links by the EU. They give some statistics and a brief explanation concerning the current situation of energy consumption, production and trade.

http://www.conserve-energy-future.com/pros-and-cons-of-renewable-energy.php

A very general and easy-to-understand article about the Pros and Cons of renewable energy sources

http://gef.eu/uploads/media/History_of_EU_energy_policy.pdf

We highly recommend you to read this document. It gives insights into how much authority the EU has when it comes to imposing new rules, what some key players’ interests might be and what challenges might arise now and in the future.

http://www.ase.tufts.edu/gdae/education_materials/modules/RenewableEnergyEcon.pdf

This last document is a very long one. However, since it examines the topic very thoroughly, we hope that you will find the time to look at it at least briefly. (Please focus on chapters 2 and 3, as the economic aspect of renewable energy plays an undoubtedly big role in the discussion)

These Research recommendations should give you a decent understanding for the topic; however, we hope that you will be able to complete some further research on your own until the session.