6. Recalls that the EU is committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 and that greater energy efficiency in cooperation with our partners beyond the borders of the EU is crucial in achieving this objective; believes that increasing energy efficiency represents a source of growth and will create jobs; therefore asks the Commission to foster RD and innovation in renewable energies and efficiency technologies and promote the rational use of energy; stresses the need for the Commission to foster cooperation and st ...[+++]rategic partnerships with countries in the transition towards sustainable economies in the fields of innovation and RD, energy efficiency and savings, application of renewable energy technologies as well as energy storage, smart grids and balancing of energy systems and to negotiate market access for related EU products and services, while promoting a gradual shift towards a sustainable low-carbon economy through trade agreements with, for example, suppliers of renewable electricity with the lowest possible greenhouse gas emissions;

4. Underlines the significant importance of relations with the USA; welcomes the Commission strategy of relaunching the Transatlantic Economic Council, focusing on the evolution of future technologies and the development of standards in key areas such as low-carbon and energy-efficient technologies and also welcomes the growing importance given to legislative and regulatory issues within the framework of the Transatlantic Legislative Dialogue;

All Treasury Board decisions—and those decisions can be taken directly by Treasury Board or through collective bargaining—with respect to compensation are to be guided by four overarching principles: external comparability, which is basically about being competitive with, but not leading, the compensation for similar work in the relevant labour markets; internal relativity, which is basically about reflecting the relative value to the employer of the work performed; individual or group performance, which is basically about rewarding performance where appropriate and practicable, either based on individual performance or group performan ...[+++]ce, depending on the types of jobs we are referring to; and the fourth, and not the least principle, is affordability, which is obviously a key overarching principle in determining compensation for the federal public administration.

There is a need for incentives to foster transparency, and a need for less cumbersome bureaucracy, since data for many areas is already available, along with market-oriented thinking, since the suppliers of energy-efficient equipment would then have a sales pitch and a vested interest in the markets for energy-efficient products in the individual states becoming more like each other rather than drifting further apart.

We believe that the fiduciary obligations, as contemplated in the trust document of the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, could be amended or modified to allow that an investment in a positive rate of return does not have to compete with the best rate of return.

Past performance is no guarantee of future performance.