UNEP head calls for decisive action on renewables

BONN, Germany, 2004-06-09 (Refocus Weekly)

Renewable energies are key to addressing two of the world’s larger problems, says the Under-Secretary General of the United Nations.

“It is clear to me that, unless we can overcome the energy poverty facing Africa and many parts of the developing world, we will never overcome the poverty that is so closely linked to environmental degradation,” says Klaus Toepfer, who is also head of the United Nations Environment Programme. There are 1.6 billion people without access to electricity and, “to create the economic development necessary to escape the poverty trap, these families need better and sustainable forms of energy.”

“Even small improvements to the type and quality of energy available for rural communities in developing countries can produce significant environmental, economic and social outcomes,” he told the renewable energy conference in Germany, and stressed the need for a financial and political commitment to change.

“Let’s be very clear: the many different forms of renewable energy will not enter the mainstream without substantially more support for R&D, better incentives, and changed markets where energy prices include environmental and social costs,” he said. “In our energy policies, we need to understand that strength, clarity and stability are the characteristics that attract capital from the private sector.”

“Renewable energy resources can be a major tool to build economic and social development while protecting the environmental values on which that development depends,” but renewables are only part of what is needed, he explained. “Energy systems based on renewable energy and continuously improving energy efficiency are the ‘multi-purpose’ tool that can best help all countries develop sustainably.”

Good advice and information on which to base policies will be “crucial as the world is facing an enormous challenge, requiring enormous investments,” and the anticipated energy investments of US$8 trillion in developing countries over the next 25 years under a ‘business as usual’ scenario will still leave 1.4 billion people without modern power, only 200 million less than today, he added. “In 2030, more than 2.6 billion people in developing countries will continue to rely on traditional biomass for cooking and heating - a figure even higher than today.”

Many advocates of renewables argued that developing countries can ‘leapfrog’ fossil fuel options that exist in industrialized nations, but Toepfer says the explosion in the use of mobile phones in countries with few fixed phone lines is different from renewables because developing countries “are getting and using technology that is widely used and accepted in developed countries,” he noted. “In this context, renewable energy seems too often to be a case of ‘do what we say, not what we do.’

The share of renewables in total primary energy supply of member countries of the International Energy Agency was 5.5% in 2001, up from 4.6% in 1970, but annual growth of renewables slowed from 2.8% in the 1970s and 80s, to 1.2% from 1990 to 2001, and many mature renewables (hydro, geothermal, biomass) declined in many IEA countries during the 1990s.
“It is clear that the path to sustainable energy is a huge challenge, but nothing less will be required” and the ‘window’ to a sustainable energy future is still open but closing fast, and he called on nations to act decisively.

Click here for more info...

Visit http://www.sparksdata.co.uk/refocus/ for your international energy focus!!