Gorbachev urges G8 to
back solar power, not oil or nuclear
AFP, 26 April 2006 - Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev on
Wednesday urged the world's biggest industrialised nations to set up a
50-billion-dollar (44-billion-euro) fund to support solar power, warning
that oil or nuclear energy were not viable energy sources for the
future.
Gorbachev -- who chairs an environmental thinktank, Green Cross
International -- called on leaders of the Group of Eight (G8)
industrialised nations to invest in renewable energy sources, in a
statement marking the 20th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear
disaster.
As leader of the Soviet Union in 1986, Gorbachev led the immediate
response to the world's worst nuclear disaster, which led to at least
4,000 deaths and sent a radioactive cloud over parts of Europe.
The Green Cross proposals were contained in a letter sent to the
leaders of the Group of Eight industrialised nations who are due to meet
in Russia in July. Some of the proposals were reported last week in the
Financial Times.
"This idea reflects our vision of a way of helping the
energy-impoverished in the developing world, while creating
concentrations of solar energy in cities that could be used to prevent
blackouts," Gorbachev said.
Solar energy would also "lower electricity bills, and would provide a
source in the future for generating renewable hydrogen fuels," he added.
"The fund could easily be raised by cutting subsidies for fossil
fuels like oil and coal."
Rising oil prices and supply concerns, as well as the growing need
tocombat global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions, have raised
the profile and economic viability of some renewable energy sources.
Those concerns have also sparked renewed interest in nuclear power as a
source of climate-friendly energy.
The debate has been amplified by the need for some European countries
to plan soon for the replacement of earlier generations of nuclear power
stations that are due to come to the end of their lifespan in the next
two decades. But Gorbachev has said that nuclear power "doesn't add up
economically, environmentally or socially".
"Nuclear power is neither the answer to modern energy problems nor a
panacea for climate change challenges," he claimed.
Green Cross said nuclear technology requires huge amounts of initial
capital, while decommissioning plants is hugely expensive and costs
continue to be incurred long after a nuclear power station is closed.
Direct subsidies to nuclear energy in the United States totalled 115
billion dollars between 1947 and 1999 with a further 145 billion dollars
in indirect subsidies, according to the non-governmental agency. It said
they dwarfed those spent on solar or wind power.
The G8 brings together Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Russia and the United States.
This article is reproduced with kind permission of
Agence France-Presse (AFP)
For more news and articles visit the
AFP website.
|