Climate change conferences should focus on renewables

NAIROBI, Kenya, November 22, 2006 (Refocus Weekly)

A coalition of international renewable energy groups says conferences on climate change must focus on improving the framework for renewable energies as key technologies for climate change mitigation.

Six thousand delegates are meeting in Nairobi to discuss the mitigation of climate change and its potentially disastrous consequences, says the International Renewable Energy Alliance. The meeting is the 12th conference of parties (COP12) since the Kyoto Protocol was signed in 1997 in Japan and the second meeting of parties (MOP2) since that treaty was ratified by a requisite number of countries.

“Renewable energy is the long-term solution to climate change without reducing the economic perspectives of all human beings,” says Stefan Gsänger of the World Wind Energy Association, one of the member groups of the IREA. “In principle, wind energy alone could cover all the energy needs worldwide; jointly with the other renewable options like geothermal, hydro, solar or biomass, wind can deliver the needed energy to all parts of the earth without causing any dangerous emissions.”

“Unfortunately the ongoing discussions here in Nairobi do not yet reflect the urgency of the matter,” he adds. “There is a pressing need for a worldwide framework for the internalisation of the external costs of fossil and nuclear sources” since the Kyoto protocol has been an important first step but “does not yet provide the appropriate framework for an accelerated renewable energy deployment on a global scale.”

“Climate change is widely recognised as the major environmental challenge and it is clear that climate change objectives must largely be achieved through the energy system,” says Arni Ragnasson of the International Geothermal Association. “The renewable energy sources will play an increasing role, both in the battle of decreasing GHG emissions, and also as a contribution to sustainable energy production.”

“The major focus of future energy policy should be to increase the use of renewable energy,” he says. “It is important not to create market and regulatory barriers that might constrain this development.”

“Renewable energies are key to meeting emission reduction targets and mitigating climate change,” says Christine Hornstein of the International Solar Energy Society. “Governments and businesses need to recognize the need to develop and support the large scale implementation of a combination of renewable energy technologies. A worldwide transition to renewable energies must emerge at the top of national and international political agendas.”

All energy options should be considered “fairly and rigorously” in their assessment, and international policy must encourage clean energy systems through research and capacity building, adds Richard Taylor of the International Hydropower Association. There is a “synergy between renewable energies as the backbone of sustainable energy systems; however, only with policy that transcends the politics of the Kyoto mechanisms will there be the necessary accelerated deployment of renewable energy throughout the developed and developing world.”

The transition to renewables will not necessarily incur economic costs and, in fact, it is likely to deliver substantial employment and competitiveness benefits, the groups explain. New instruments and mechanisms are required which provide sufficient long-term investment security, a level playing field for all energy sources, and the sustainable growth of renewable energy industries and markets around the world.