“We need to expand the use of renewable and decentralised energy in order to help increase security in the one world we live in,” said Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder addressing the International Conference for Renewable Energies which was hosted by Germany and attended by 3,000 people from more than 150 countries.

“Events in Saudi Arabia and Iraq have made it dramatically clear how vitally important it is to our security to have an energy supply based on as many different types and sources of energy as possible.”

The Chancellor pointed out that experts estimate that the current rise in oil prices is creating some 60 billion dollars in additional costs for the developing countries. “This is approximately the amount of money the industrial countries provide for development assistance each year. The poorest countries of Africa are currently spending more than half of their export earnings on oil imports. Two billion people, about a third of the world’s population, have no access to normal energy supplies. Those that want to combat poverty and promote development will need to invest in decentralised, renewable energy.”

In an Action Plan for renewable energy the conference listed 250 initiatives, many involving partnerships between different countries, including north and south.
At their own Forum within the four-day conference, 300 parliamentarians agreed to support the creation of an International Renewable Energy Agency. They also agreed to meet regularly and continue to develop joint strategies to speed up the adoption of renewable energy technologies worldwide.

“The Parliamentary Renewable Energy Forum should be seen as the beginning of a new era of co-operation between parliaments,” they said. Dr Hermann Scheer, who chaired the Parliamentary Forum, said the Conference had done much to tear down the psychological barriers surrounding renewable energies. In many countries people dismissed the possibility of replacing fossil and nuclear fuels with renewables as unrealistic. In fact it was unrealistic to suggest that nuclear fuels were the answer. “To run the world on nuclear energy we would need to build one new nuclear power station every week for the next 50 years,” he said. Serious scientific scenarios have been presented since the 1970s for the achievement of a total renewable energy supply by the year 2050.”

The World Renewable Energy Agenda agreed by the parliamentarians and the non-governmental World Energy Forum goes well beyond the Kyoto protocol and provides a way forward for those countries with a sense of urgency to co-operate without waiting for those that believe that ‘business as usual’ is an option. Since 1990, Germany has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 19 per cent and today 120,000 people are employed in the renewable energy industries, with around six billion Euros invested last year alone.

“I emphasise this,” said Chancellor Schroeder, “because it shows that there is nothing more absurd than the claim that there is an irreconcilable conflict between environmental protection and sensible economics. But it is only when we are able to bring about a significant reduction in the cost of renewable energies that we will have improved opportunities to promote their use in poorer countries. Increasing their use will be a means of providing environmental security and protecting the lives of millions of peoples,” the Chancellor declared.

(Source: Positive News: http://www.positivenews.org.uk/index.php) 

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