The Lillehammer Reward

Ministers, ladies and gentlemen,

In 2007, the Norwegain Peace prize committee awarded Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, with the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in the work against climate change.

Their action shows us that we can all contribute to improve our environment on both global and local arenas.

We all need to increase our efforts on environmental issues, we need political courage and will; we need international regulations and - above all - we need innovations and technological development to face the climate change.

The Lillehammer award was first presented in 1994 to the most promising environmental project in Eureka. Eureka plays an important role in stimulating projects developing environmentally friendly technologies.
 
Before announcing the winner; I would like to express my sincere thanks to the members of the jury:
• Prof. Dr Daniel Vrhovšek, from Slovenia;
• Mr Carlo Manna, from Italy; and
• Prof. Carlos Borrego, from Portugal
Thank you !

On behalf of Eureka, it is a great pleasure for me to announce the winner of the Lillehammer-award 2008.
The project has been chosen for its outstanding environmental merits. It is a project that is important for reducing emissions from cars. The winner is EUREKA project 3379 CYPRESS.
The project was led by the Dutch firm Sensata Technologies, which worked together with the German BERU company. This project has developed a sensor that helps clean up the emissions from diesel engines. 
 
Over the past years, both Europe and the USA have introduced strict standards to reduce emissions from motor vehicles – and these standards will be made even tougher over the next decade.
The winner has introduced a cleaner alternative by optimising combustion. The result is a reduction in NOx and particle emissions by a massive 90 percent. It also reduces fuel consumption. Last, but not least, the new technology can be incorporated in engines with no significant change to their structure.
 
The German partner has recently been able to start manufacture and marketing of pressure sensor glow plugs, and, Motors equipped with these plugs are already being exported to the USA. The market is growing.

The jury has selected a worthy winner of the Lillehammer award 2008. The award consists of a cheque for 10,000 euro and a woodprint by the Norwegian artist Niclas Gulbrandsen. The print is entitled ”Beethoven’s Fruhlingssonate”.

I will ask the winners to step forward to receive the award.
Let us applaud the winners.