Renew On Line (UK) 39

Extracts from the Sept-Oct 2002 edition of Renew
These extracts only represent about 25% of it

16. Earth Summit inputs

The UN World Summit on Sustainable Development was held in Johannesburg, South Africa, between 26th Aug- 4th Sept and attracted the usual crowd of politicos, international agency staff, NGO’s and environmental activists: we’ll report in full in Renew 140. We look here at some of their initial inputs to WSSD, focussing on a key priority, identified both within the UK and internationally, the need for a greater provision of sustainable energy supplies.

There are already a number of international initiatives in this area, including those sponsored by the G8, the International Energy Agency and the EU, and a lot of new initiatives have emerged, including some by the newly formed UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (UKBCSE).

Blair had set the scene, at the G8 Head’s of Government Meeting "We will work with the UK Business Council on Sustainable Energy to develop further initiatives to promote the use of renewable and sustainable energy world-wide." Following this up, UKBCSE, working alongside DEFRA and the FCO, organised a pre-WSSD conference and launched its position paper ‘Power to Transform’ Contact UKBCSE on 020 7828 4077

Meanwhile, the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee published a damning report claiming that, despite the creation of the appropriate infrastructure to deliver sustainable development, progress towards this goal was frustratingly slow, adding that ‘the latest UK quality of life indicators illustrate this point yet the Government seems determined to pretend otherwise’. It complained about the lack of critical assessment of the UK Local Agenda 21 programme, and noted that ‘there is a risk that the WSSD will not be the turning point that the world needs unless a clear, truly sustainable development agenda is rapidly agreed’.

See: www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/cm200102/cmselect/cmenvaud/616/61602.htm

Even more militantly, the Save Our World campaign (at www.save-our-world.org.uk) initiated a challenge to the UK government to take a proposal to the World Summit for all countries to face up collectively to more than 60% reductions in greenhouse gases within 50 years.

Not be outdone, Brian Wilson, UK Energy Minister, called on developed countries to "practice what we preach" when asking the developing world to combat global warming. Speaking at the world’s first global windpower conference in Paris, Mr Wilson said: "There is a particular challenge to the most developed countries which are also the biggest energy users. It is simply not credible for us to preach the dangers of climate change and to expect less developed economies to make the necessary adjustments, unless at the same time we are practicing what we preach. There must be major behavioural changes in our approach to both the production and use of energy. No country is entitled to opt out of that responsibility".

He pushed renewables hard: "it is important, when we talk about the global potential of renewables, to remember that this can be translated into new opportunities for speeding up the electrification process in many of the remotest and most needful corners of the world. That is a challenge we should address on a global basis."

One of the main outcomes of the original Earth Summit in Rio was Local Agenda 21, with a report back expected at WSSD. The OU EERU surveyed the UK’s contribution with a special web site on LA21 Energy projects: http://eeru.open.ac.uk/greenenergy.

Also see the OU’s WSSD site at http://earthsummit.open.ac.uk