Flamslatt Diary

The sixth ECEN Assembly took place in Fläslätt, a church centre near Skara, Sweden. Around 100 delegates gathered in the beautiful surroundings of autumnal trees and the lake, to discuss "Living in a new Energy Era".

The first day of the Assembly involved learning about and discussing the theme of Energy. Lukas Vischer introduced the theme, with reference to the {cms_selflink page="raubichi01" text="Assembly in Minsk"} in 2001, when energy was previously discussed. Lukas set out four new challenges since that time:

  • Climate change has become much more dramatic
  • Oil prices are increasing
  • Renewable energy has moved into the mainstream
  • Nuclear has become revived as a viable option in European governments.

What has remained the same since Minsk is the need to reduce energy consumption, and he mentioned the Swiss initiative in which 51 organisations have presented a package of measures to more from a "6000KW society" to a "2000KW society" in terms of consumption per person per year.

André Jol, head of the Climate Change adn Energy Group of the European Environment Agency provided a lot of background information about energy trends and perspectives in Europe. Ole Langniss from the Centre for Solar Energy and Water Research described the range of technologies available for renewable generation, including solar pv and heating, wind power, biomass, small hydro, and others.

There followed a panel discussion between Karen Lexen (Church of Sweden), Fred Dinning (Church of Scotland), Neela Winkelman (Czech Republic), and Christina Lueng (Swedish government) on energy policy and values.

The final contribution was a presentation of four examples of good practice in churches, from Hans-Herman Bohm, Roman Juriga, Kilian Dorr, and