Eyre Energy Environment

The European Commission, through its JOULE Programme ExternE Project, has made substantial contribution to the development of methodologies for the evaluation of the externalities associated with a wide range of fossil, nuclear and renewable fuel cycles. The ExternE project is recognised as being at the forefront of work in this field. However, this is a very rapidly developing area with new data and assessment methodologies continuously becoming available Likewise there is a steadily growing demand for the results of such analysis as they are being incorporated in decision making processes. Hence, it is essential for the researches in this area to keep work up-to-date with new developments and data. The overall objective of this Concerted Action is to set up a Discussion Group to facilitate the exchange of ideas, new developments and information between the large number of European teams now working in the field of external costs. This will enable all teams to keep up-to-date with this fast moving area of research which will be of considerable benefit to their national studies. It is also hoped that the Concerted Action will enable the consistency of approach to the evaluation of external costs within Europe which currently exists to be maintained. This will be very beneficial when the results of such work are employed in European wide activities. It is proposed that the Discussion Group will meet at six-monthly intervals. In addition, more frequent communication between members of the Discussion Group will be enabled by setting up a series of on-line communication facilities using the World Wide Web. The latter will include the publication of a six-monthly Newsletter, organisation of an on-line External Costs Discussion Group and the provision of a file server and archive facility. The Newsletter will be widely disseminated throughout Europe to a broad range of researchers and policy and decision makers, within national governments, industry and academic institutions. The proposed membership of the Discussion Group is largely based on the network of teams that have worked very successfully together for the past two years as part of the JOULE II funded ExternE-National Implementation Programme. This Programme of work has now been successfully completed and it is envisaged that the Concerted Action will allow continued fruitful discussion and information exchange within this network of European Teams. It is also proposed to include in the Discussion Group a number of recognised experts in areas such as health, ecology and monetary valuation, who will be able to inform the Group of new developments and ongoing research in their respective areas. In total 23 teams will be involved, representing all EU Member States (with the exception of Luxembourg).