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BEIJING, China, November 23, 2005 (Refocus
Weekly)
Renewable energies carry a “real potential for
local economic development and for communities under the poverty
line,” and their deployment must be accelerated, says the
environment commissioner from the European Commission.
“The European Union’s experience in establishing multi-country,
multi-faceted, target-based programs can provide some indications as
to how renewables can be promoted at global level,” Stavros Dimas
told the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference. “This
conference can accelerate the deployment of renewable energy by
giving a strong political signal” to ensure that the next sessions
of the UN Commission for Sustainable Development deliver concrete
results on renewables.
The World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in 2002
made “a fundamental step by acknowledging for the first time that
renewable energy is a key factor in addressing climate change,
poverty and more generally economic development,” he said. Action on
climate change is urgent and further measures to promote energy
efficiency are necessary and promising, but a “comprehensive and
efficient energy policy” must make renewables a key element since
“renewables offer a great opportunity of producing energy in a clean
way.”
“Developing countries can have at their disposal an appropriate and
sufficient amount of energy without the uncertainties and
vulnerability related to the fluctuations of oil prices,” he
explained. “It strengthens their self-reliance on energy supply and
promote local economies as developing countries can exploit
resources that they have already available in their territories,
thus increasing ownership and creating more job opportunities.”
Renewables are an important source of technological innovation, and
offer significant potential savings in transmission and distribution
costs, and makes it possible to leapfrog the expensive grid-based
energy systems used in Europe and the U.S. since the early 1900s.
The Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto Protocol can offer
“great opportunities for investment in renewable energy” and the
European Commission will continue its commitment to renewables and
its willingness to strengthen international co-operation in the
area. “We all stand to gain from working together in this area and
assisting developing countries to benefit from their vast renewable
energy sources,” he added.
“The European Union has a comprehensive and target-based approach to
renewable energy” and, since late last decade, has been working
towards an indicative target of 12% as the share of renewables in
primary energy consumption by 2010. Since 2003, the EU has worked to
source 21% of green power and 5.75% of green fuels by 2010.
Although Europe obtains 6% of its energy and 12% of its electricity
from renewables, “numbers should not be deceiving and give a wrong
impression,” and the EU approach works by delivering “substantial
and sound economic and environmental results.” The renewable energy
sector is among the fastest-growing in Europe, with annual revenue
of Euro 15 billion and the creation of 200,000 jobs, while Europe
has 4.5 million consumers of green power, he explained.
“There is, however, also another side of the coin,” and he said an
EC communication last year warned that “a lot needs to be done” in
terms of support, public awareness and research for renewables,
noting that promotion of renewables is not the same in all member
countries. A biomass action plan for Europe will be adopted later
this month, and will list a range of actions on green heating
applications “to ensure that the general and operational targets are
met by 2010.”
The European Parliament recently called for renewables to provide
25% of the continent’s power by 2020 but Dimas said measures on
energy demand remain central. Without efforts to increase energy
efficiency, “any increases in the use of renewables will be easily
cancelled out by growing energy demand.”
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