WSSD: Brazil Plan on Renewable Energy Lights up Summit

By Marwaan Macan-Markar Reprint | | Print |

Marwaan Macan-Markar

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 28 2002 (IPS) - Brazil has become the buzzword among environmentalists lobbying to secure a global commitment on renewable energy sources at the 10-day U.N. summit being held here.

By Wednesday, the third day of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD), activists were praising the South American nation for forging ahead with its renewable energy initiative.

According to one flyer being circulated among the hundreds gathered at the Sandton Convention Center, the summit’s venue – “Brazil has introduced a progressive target” for the use of renewable sources, which include solar energy, wind power, marine energy, modern biomass and geothermal energy.

The notice was distributed by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Greenpeace.

Environmentalists have warmed to Brazil’s initiative – which is co-sponsored by about 30 other Latin American and Caribbean nations – because it sets a target that 10 percent of the world’s energy should be produced using renewables by 2010.

The Brazil plan also foregoes large hydro electricity projects and energy sources commonly used by the world’s poor, such as firewood.

“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 group.

But convincing delegates from the 191 countries present at the summit that the initiative is the best solution to meet some of the world’s immediate energy demands will not be easy.

During Tuesday night’s round of negotiations, for example, a European Union (EU) effort to discuss two contentious issues in the main summit document was challenged by the United States.

The two issues deal with the need to diversify energy supply by increasing the use of renewable energy sources and for countries to phase out energy subsidies, which are said to inhibit sustainable development.

“Energy is one of the top 10 tough issues to find common ground,” a member of the EU delegation told IPS.

“The energy discussions went on till very late. The negotiators worked till 3 a.m.,” said Hans-Christian Schmidt, environment minister of Denmark, at a press conference Wednesday.

The issues have divided delegates, with the United States having the support of Japan, Canada, Australia and nations belonging to the 11-member Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), says a Third World diplomat.

One Middle Eastern representative 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 IPS. “We are not in favour of timeframes.”

Hampton says 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 EU to throw its weight behind Brazil, rather than stick to the plan it has advocated since the summit kicked off on Aug. 26.

That proposal, to achieve a global target of 15 percent renewable energy by 2010, can “create incentives for large hydropower dams and unsustainable biomass across the world”, state Greenpeace and the WWF.

Energy is one of the five major themes that the WSSD draft plan of action has set as priorities to lift the world’s poor out of poverty. The other four are water, health care, agriculture and bio-diversity.

At the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, governments agreed to change unsustainable energy consumption patterns.

But almost 10 years later, as the Washington-based Worldwatch Institute revealed in its ‘Vital Signs 2002’, world consumption of coal, oil and natural gas is on the rise. “Since 1950, fossil fuel use has increased by more than fourfold,” the report states.

What is more, the study notes that while improvements in technology and productivity have brought down production and transportation costs, “the cheapest reserves are being depleted, and new supplies must be brought over increasingly long distances – driving energy costs upward”.

“Brazil’s initiative will help address this,” says Hampton, the environmentalist. “The idea also includes transfer of renewable technologies to the developing world, which has been agreed to before.”