Brazil -The NGO Flavour of the Week

By Marwaan Macan-Markar

Brazil has become the buzzword among environmentalists lobbying to secure a global commitment on renewable energy sources at the WSSD. By yesterday, the third day of summit, the South American nation was being praised by activists for forging ahead with its renewable energy initiative.

What have warmed environmentalists to Brazil’s initiative are its language and the global targets it has set to increase the production of renewable energy, such as solar energy, wind power, marine energy, modern biomass and geothermal energy.
The Brazilian Energy Initiative does not include large hydro electricity projects and the commonly used biomass fuel such as firewood among the world’s poor in its definition. And it wants the world to have 10 percent new renewable energy by 2010.

’’Brazil has shown leadership in raising the issue at the WSSD negotiations,’’ says Kate Hampton, international climate coordinator at Friends of the Earth International (FoEI), a global environment lobby.
But Brazil has still to convince some delegates from the 191 countries present at the summit that its initiative is the best solution to meet some of the world’s immediate energy demands. For during Tuesday night’s round of negotiations, a European Union (E.U.) effort to discuss two of the contentious issues in the main document, which the Brazilian proposal would have strengthened, was challenged by the United States.
The two issues are under paragraph 19 of the ‘Draft plan of implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development.’ They deal with the need to diversify energy supply by increasing the global share of renewable energy sources and for countries to phase out energy subsidies, since it inhibits sustainable development.

”Energy is one of the top 10 tough issues to find common ground,’’ a member of the E.U. delegation told IPS.
‘’The energy discussions went on till very late. The negotiators worked till 3 a.m.,’’ Hans-Christian Schmidt, environment minister of Denmark, said at a press conference yesterday.

It is an issue, furthermore, that is throwing up divisions among the delegates, with the United States having the support of Japan, Canada, Australia and those belonging to the 11-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), says a Third World diplomat.

One Middle Eastern diplomat says his country will not agree to the calls for ‘’new renewable’’ targets. ‘’We don’t want to add new changes to what has been agreed to,’’ Najin Al-Rawas, a summit delegate from Oman, told TerraViva. ‘’We are not in favour of time frames.’’
According to Hampton, however, Brazil should find allies among countries such as Britain, New Zealand, Sweden, Germany and the small island nations.

A coalition of environmental groups here are urging the E.U. to throw its entire weight behind Brazil, rather than sticking to the plan it has advocated since the summit kicked off on Monday. The E.U.’s current proposal to achieve a global target of 15 percent renewable energy by 2010 ‘’create incentives for large hydropower dams and unsustainable biomass across the world,’’ state Greenpeace and the WWF.