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'renewables 2004': renewable energy and poverty reduction
Virtual advanced training on 'Global Campus 21'
Romania on the way into the EU
8-9/2003
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[ International Conference 2004 in Bonn ]
'renewables 2004': renewable energy and poverty reduction
The International Conference on Renewable Energy will take place in Bonn in June next year under the title 'renewables 2004'. The conference is to give impetus to expanding the use of renewable energy worldwide and draw attention to the great importance access to modern energy has for poverty reduction. InWEnt is already making intensive preparations for its participation in the conference.
During his visit to the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in September 2002, German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder came up with a surprise. He invited the participants to an International Conference on Renewable Energy in Bonn. This step was welcomed because no agreement on concrete goals and a timeframe for the expansion of renewable energy could be reached in Johannesburg. To make up for that, a great number of countries joined forces to form the 'Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition' even while the Summit was still going on. This coalition, which last met in Brussels in June at the invitation of the European Commission, is to be expanded at the 'renewables 2004' conference in Bonn.
The preparations for the event are already going full steam ahead, and the German Federal Environment Ministry and the BMZ have assumed responsibility for it. A Website and a Secretariat has been set up, and a National Conference Support Committee and an International Steering Committee appointed. These two bodies, composed of representatives of government, commerce and industry, NGOs and academia, have already constituted themselves. They are to act as 'ambassadors' for 'renewables 2004' and advise the organisers on drawing up the programme. In addition, regional preparatory meetings are planned. The concept provides for an 'enhanced intergovernmental conference' in which the business world and civil society are to participate and be integrated in a so-called 'multi-stakeholder dialogue'.
The goal of 'renewables 2004' are the further development of political, economic and social strategies on greater use of renewable energy sources, discussion of country-specific expansion objectives, exchange of information on good practices and technology transfer, and the building up of networks to promote renewable energy. The results hoped for from the conference include new promotion and financing models, action plans by the 'Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition' and the forming of new (energy) partnerships between government, civil society and private sector actors. With regard to the conference subject, host country Germany can present impressive figures: the share of renewable energy in overall electricity consumption in Germany has risen from 4.6 per cent in 1998 to almost double that today, and is currently slightly less than 9 per cent; one-third of the wind-power electricity produced in the world is generated in Germany; and more than 130,000 people are employed in the national industry.
InWEnt is participating in 'renewables 2004' by organising several events in the run-up to and, as side events, during the conference. The World Wind Energy Conference in Cape Town at the end of November this year will be used by InWEnt partner organisations as a regional preparatory meeting. The InWEnt Service Bureau 'Municipalities in One World' and the 'National Service Bureau Agenda 21' will organise during the run-up to 'renewables 2004' a congress on the subject 'Municipalities set standards – Use of renewable energy and energy efficiency', which will be aimed at pushing ahead the political debate on the role of the municipalities in implementing sustainable energy systems. The congress is also to reinforce existing climate protection and project partnerships. In addition, a Mayors' Forum which will take place during the congress is to lend more weight to the concerns of the municipalities.
In an event organised by InWEnt within the framework of 'renewables 2004' the use of renewable energy in the urban area, particularly in big cities, is to be dealt with. Subjects to be discussed are above all energy-saving construction methods, supplementary measures to save energy in older buildings and in traffic systems, and financing concepts. Such events contribute to the development of capacities, the importance of which cannot be rated highly enough, as Hermann Scheer, winner of the alternative Nobel Prize and member of the German Federal Parliament, emphasised during the Bundestag debate on 'renewables 2004' in April. He said: "On account of its decentral character, the worldwide introduction of renewable energy needs many people who have learnt to deal with it. The training of engineers, architects, craftsmen and academics, what internationally is called 'human capacity', must be pushed ahead. That is a global training task."
Two recent studies have provided important impulses for the 'renewables 2004' agenda. The first, the expert report 'World in Transition – Towards Sustainable Energy Systems' that the Wissenschaftliche Beirat der Bundesregierung für globale Umweltveränderungen (WBGU), the German Advisory Council on Global Change which submits reports to the Federal government, presented in April, links the subjects of climate protection and energy poverty. The WBGU argues that global energy change is necessary and also feasible if in the next two decades resolute action is taken. The precondition for an energy transformation is efficient use of energy. The WBGU goal is that by 2050 compared with today, three times as many goods and services will be produced by the same amount of energy. Moreover, the WBGU adds, the proportion of renewable energy in energy generation around the world must rise from a current 12.7 per cent to 20 per cent by 2020. A particular strength of the WBGU report is that it gives equal weight to the two goals of 'Climate protection' and 'Eradicating energy poverty'.
The second study, a joint concept paper by 10 development organisations including the World Bank, the BMZ and the UN Development Programme, titled 'Poverty and Climate Change: Reducing the Vulnerability of the Poor through Adaptation', was presented by German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul at the beginning of June. It makes unmistakably clear that climate change can ruin decades of development efforts. Only if the subject of renewable energy is linked to poverty reduction issues can effective impulses for thinking and acting on changes in behaviour and an energy transformation emerge from 'renewables 2004'.
Further information on 'renewables 2004' is posted on the Internet at www.renewables2004.de and is also available via the Conference Secretariat: info@renewables2004.de
The WBGU report 'World in Transition – Towards Sustainable Energy Systems' is posted on the Internet at www.wbgu.de/wbgu_jg2003.html and the study 'Poverty and Climate Change' is available at www.eldis.org/static/DOC11253.htm.
Hinrich Mercker is Head of the Division 'Environmental Policy and Environmental Management' of the Department 'Environment, Natural Resources and Food' of InWEnt in Berlin, and represents InWEnt on the National Conference Support Committee of 'renewables 2004'.
hinrich.mercker@inwent.org
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