Global Economic Crisis Could Leverage Shift to Green Energy

"The current global financial and economic crisis must be used to our advantage to bring about a green energy revolution," said Kandeh Yumkella, director-general of the UN Industrial Development Organization, UNIDO, one of the conference organizers.

UNIDO Director-General Kandeh Yumkella opens the conference today in Vienna. (Photo courtesy UNIDO)

Yumkella was speaking at the opening of the three-day event in Vienna, "Towards an Integrated Energy Agenda Beyond 2020," organized by UNIDO, the Austrian Government, the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, IIASA, and the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy.

"Promoting domestic and international policies that encourage green investment in the next decade should be a major priority for a climate deal to be concluded in Copenhagen," stressed Yumkella, referring to the UN conference in December aimed at reaching an ambitious new greenhouse gas emission reduction agreement to succeed the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which expires at the end of 2012.

The conference is designed to provide a framework to guide the path "towards a low-carbon global green economy powered by green industry," Yumkella told some 500 government officials, energy and economics experts, and civil society representatives attending the gathering.

The conference marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy, which facilitates dialogue between key players and encourages public-private cooperation in the field of sustainable energy.

"Vienna has become a dynamic hub for international efforts to promote peace, security and sustainable energy," Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Spindelegger told delegates.

"This conference reflects the strong commitment of Vienna based organizations to make the city of Vienna an international center of excellence in bringing forward the sustainable energy agenda," he said.

The Austrian Development Cooperation has been supporting renewable energy projects in developing countries for many years, said Spindelegger, adding that Austrian science, technology institutions and companies are known to be at the leading edge of renewable energies and energy efficiency.

Rajendra Pachauri, chair of the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore, said that energy remains the "missing Millennium Development Goal," referring to the set of anti-poverty targets world leaders have pledged to try to achieve by 2015.

Pachauri said that without an adequate supply of energy to the poor, there could be "no talk about eliminating poverty in the world."

Two solar towers now generating power in Seville, Spain. The second came online June 19, 2009. (Photo courtesy Abengoa Solar)

IIASA Director Detlof von Winterfeldt presented the highlights of the new Global Energy Assessment, which he called the most comprehensive and integrated analysis of global energy challenges ever undertaken.

"We are facing a convergence of challenges that require a fundamental transformation of energy systems," said von Winterfeldt. "Business-as-usual solutions are not an option."

"The magnitude, pace, and scale of the impact of climate change is greater than predicted even as recently as a couple of years ago – the need to respond to this change is urgent," he said.

A tripling of the current $350 billion annual investment in energy, over $100 billion of which is in renewable energy, is needed to meet global energy challenges, von Winterfeldt said.

He said an opportunity exists "in the several stimulus packages introduced by many countries in response to the global financial and economic crisis" to find the funding necessary for the shift towards a green economy.

Von Winterfeldt said it was untenable that today 2.4 billion people were without access to modern energy services. GEA early findings suggest that the cost of providing modern energy services for all is not only achievable but affordable in the medium term, if the political will exists.

Delegates also will discuss the role of the newly formed International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA, which will advise both industrialized and developing countries on reducing their dependency on fossil fuels by promoting the rapid adoption of renewable energy worldwide.

IRENA was established in Bonn, Germany on January 26, 2009 by 75 countries.

The number of IRENA member states has jumped up to 100, the organization announced Friday. The number of people living in its member states and thus directly impacted by IRENA, rose to more than 3.2 billion people.

More countries are expected to join prior to the next meeting of IRENA's signatory countries at the end of June in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. The United States and Australia are expected to join soon.

"IRENA displays a certain magnetic quality for all those, who have realized that renewable energies are the key to the world's future energy supply," said Hermann Scheer, president of EUROSOLAR and chair of the World Council for Renewable Energy.

"The number of more than three billion people in IRENA's member countries is enormous," said Scheer. "One day in the near future when fossil and nuclear energies are completely depleted, people worldwide will use renewable energy."

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2009. All rights reserved.