reegle Blog

At 8.30am, on a Sunday morning, the third and final session of this fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue began under the robust co-chairmanship of Mr. Marthinus Van Schalwyk (Minister of Environment, South Africa) and Mr. Ian Shugart (Associate Deputy Minister of Environment, Canada).

The Keynote address from Dr Ichiro Kamoshita (Minister of the Environment, Japan) explained that scientific evidence from the IPCC report showed that time was not on our-side. He explained how the Japanese G8 Summit this year will discuss a long-term goal, a mid-term goal for developed countries, and the action of developing countries and how developed countries can support them in developing a low-carbon economy. He explained the importance of a low carbon society, and how he felt that both long and mid-term goals were important in delivering this. Kamoshita said that the reduction potential of available needs to be tallied up – to help this Japan would sponsor a workshop, which from a ground-up level would look at different sectors. Kamoshita, went on to say that the world needed a fair (not uniform), but efficient pathway to reduce global carbon emissions.

Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary, US Department of State, explained within the concept of common, but differentiated responsibility; a commitment must be made by every country. Any agreed post-2012 agreement needs to be simple and practicable, and flexible, whilst taking into account a wide range of national circumstances and national concerns. She believed the success that occurred in Bali, would not have been possible without the Gleneagles Dialogue process.

Ms. Masnellyarti Hilman, Deputy Minister for the Environment, Indonesia, explained how the CDM process was helping developing countries to adapt and mitigate the challenges of Climate Change, but the system needs to be scaled up. She said that now was the time to stop talking and start acting.

Elliot Morely, GLOBE International, explained how he felt that the Gleneagles Dialogue process had allowed attending countries to discuss areas of agreement; on how to stabilise the climate, whilst allowing for economic growth to tackle poverty. He said globally we needed to increase carbon productivity, by a factor of 15 by 2015; timescales were short, and we need a carbon revolution in a third of the time of the Industrial Revolution. He explained that the Montreal Protocol had shown that the costs of abatement were often less than the original estimates. He concluded by saying there needed to be unprecedented co-operation with governments for any deal to succeed.

Graeme Sweeney, World Economic Forum, explained that the global surge in energy demand would continue to grow, therefore energy efficiency must be centre stage of any solution, and there needs to be an increase in the deployment of renewable technologies. He explained how this was not a easy task, but governments should not forget the role of the consumer, as they needed to explain a low-carbon economy to the voter. A win-win solution was only possible if long-term goals were set, and if there was unprecedented cooperation between governments and the private sector.

Ms. Rajasree Ray, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Government of India, explained that for India economic growth was most important. She commented that as India did not cause climate change, it cannot therefore be constrained by GHG targets.

Mr. Matthias Maching, State Secretary for the Environment, Germany, said we needed to maintain momentum in the international process, as time is still the most pressing problem. Globally we needed a long-term goal, which must reduce emissions by 50%. Developed Countries needed a mandatory mid-term target of between 25%-40% reductions, and following this there needs to be a cascade of responsibilities.

Mr, Brice Lalonde, Government of France, asked fellow attending Ministers attending, if they had the political will to challenge this problem. In response to the points made by India, he said, some of us here have historical responsibilities, but we all have future responsibilities and capabilities.

Mr. Zhenhua Xie, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, explained that he felt that developing countries needed to grow alongside the economics of climate change.

Minister Martin Ferguson, Minister for Resources and Energy, Australia said, time is not on our side and everyone has to pull its weight and front-up to their responsibilities.

Mr. Jos Delbeke, European Commission, said that within any agreement there needed to be verifiable emissions data, so people can have trust and faith in the system, as good data has helped to improve the function of the CDM. Good data is the cement to ensure that any agreement/treaty gets implemented, and effort must be tied to economic capability (GDP per capita).

Jennifer Morgan, speaking on behalf of the NGO community, said that we need an agreement that will bring out the best from our governments, societies and business. Any future agreement needs to go beyond carbon markets and include technology transfer and intellectual property rights (IPR).

Mr. Halldor Thoreirsson, UNFCCC, finished the session by reminding delegates that we should not see the negotiations and future agreement as a rugby game, but a joint team effort.

Mr. James Evans of the World Bank, began the second session of the final Gleneagles Dialogue meeting by explaining that since G8 Summit at Gleneagles in 2005, the percentage of energy finance for low-carbon technologies has increased from 25%, to 40%, and is expected to rise to 45% in 2008. He said that Climate Change is not just an environmental problem, but also a development issue. Mr. Alden Meyer, from The Union of Concerned Scientists, said he felt that governments should focus on implementing known technologies, which are currently available, such as renewable and energy efficiency technologies. He echoed the findings of REEEP’s Regional Policy Analysis Report for WIREC (Washington International Renewable Energy Conference), by calling for a level-playing field between low-carbon power generation and the current carbon intensive means, he argued that the subsidies currently paid to the exploration of oil fields need to be removed, and the money invested in alternative low-carbon fuels/forms of generation.

The delegation from Mexico explained how there needed to a financial bridge for developing countries, so that they can scale-up from the project level to national implementation.

There were calls from the delegations from Indonesia and Spain to scale-up and improve the CDM process.

Richard Samans, World Economic Forum, called for G8 countries to work in collaboration with each other, rather than bilaterally, when funding a transition to a low-carbon economy.

Paula Dobriansky, Under Secretary, US Department of State, called for a removal of tariffs on low-carbon goods. She explained that with the UK and Japan, the USA had set up the Clean Technology Fund with the World Bank. The USA had invested $2 Billion in this fund, which was designed to help countries implement regulatory frameworks that encourage the development of low-carbon regimes.

Bjorn Stigson, The World Business Council for Sustainable Development, reminded attendees that 86% of investment for a low-carbon economy would come from the private sector, and to maximize this all governments need to understand the background to business makes investments, and show they had stable economies, with well-formulated favorable long-term policies for low-carbon technologies.

Prof. Maciej Norwicki, Minister of the Environment, Poland, closed the meeting by encouraging delegates to be well prepared for the next UNFCCC meeting in Poznañ, Poland, in December 2008. He said at the event there would be a special exhibition of global best practice technologies to help stimulate the debate.

The session focused on how to encourage entrepreneurs to develop a global low-carbon economy. Mr. Nobo Tanaka (Executive Director, International Energy Agency) explained that renewables and energy efficiency technologies must be part of any solution, he showed that these technologies have the potential to reduce current emission pathways by 21% and 54% respectively. Mr. Tanaka, announced that the IEA will make 16 new energy efficiency recommendations to the G8 at Hokkaido in June. Mr. Tanka went onto explain that in any global solution that there had to be an equitable and fair burden sharing. He said, we face a formidable but achievable challenge, and that there needed to be a global energy revolution in the way that we produce energy – oil supplies were no longer the major constraint for the IEA, but time to implement the changes needed to put the global economy on a low-carbon pathway.

Mr. Zhenhua Xie, Vice Chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission, explained that climate change posed a huge challenge to developing countries development. He felt that globally, the problem was not a lack of technology, but a lack of disseminating this technology, as developed countries hold the patents for the majority of this technology. These countries, therefore needed to help developing countries to develop their capacity. He also commented that there needed to be a level-playing field within government’s policies and regulations so that low-carbon technologies, such as renewables could develop as conventional energy systems previous had.

Mr. Devender Singh, Joint Secretary of the Minister of Power, India, commented that low-carbon technologies need to be developed to fit the needs and pockets of developing countries.

Mr. Matthias Maching, State Secretary for the Environment, Germany, explained that there needs to be an 80% reduction in Germany’s emissions if it was to reach the 2.5 tonnes per capita target. He felt that Germany had access to technology, which could make a 40% reduction in emissions, but more money needed to be spent in research and development to develop technologies that would enable countries to make further cuts in emissions. He welcomed Japan’s proposed energy efficiency improvement target of 30%, but stated that governments need to have more concrete solutions on how to meet this, and called on the IEA, with the help of German finance, to do this on a country level. He echoed former Prime Minister, Tony Blair’s comments saying, a third industrial revolution was needed to bring forward this low-carbon age. This revolution he believed would be a challenge, but it would provide industry and business with huge opportunities as he felt the current 1000 billion euro market for low-carbon technologies would double.

Mr. Bjorn Stigson, President, World Business Council for Sustainable Development, explained how he felt there was still a huge potential for energy efficiency technologies, but rather than looking to develop new technologies, effort should be placed in implementing the technologies, that we already have at hand, as they still offer huge cost neutral benefits in reducing global emissions.

Mr. Malcolm Wicks, Energy Minister, United Kingdom, commented that although the challenge was huge, and that globally we were still heading in the wrong direction as carbon emission continue to rise, although globally and politically there were the tools to tackle it. Mr. Wicks said that he still felt that a lack of policy and financing framework is a major problem, and to help with this he announced that the United Kingdom was making a new three year commitment to the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), which for 2008/09 will be ₤2.5 million (GBP). It is the aim of REEEP to remove the policy and financial barriers, which exist to the implementation of renewable, and energy efficiency projects and technologies.

Energy Minister, Malcom Wicks, at the Department for Business, Enterprise & Regulatory Reform (BERR) made an announcement at the first session of the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue, that the Government of the United Kingdom through the Department of Environment, Food abd Rural Affairs (DEFRA) will make a three-year commitment to REEEP (Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership), which for the period 2008/09 will total ₤2.5 million (GBP).

He explained that the United Kingdom felt that a lack of policy and financing frameworks is a major problem to the implementation of low-carbon technologies. It is REEEP’s aim to reduce and remove these barriers, and encourage positive policies and financial frameworks that encourage the deployment of renewable and energy efficiency technologies.

Former United Kingdom Prime Minister, Tony Blair, opened the 4th Ministerial Meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue, by explaining that there are few if any doubters behind the science of climate change. He said, there is in fact an acute awareness of the problem, and it continues to get worse. Mr Blair continued to say that the scale of the challenge is so great that a revolution, not an adjustment would be needed to transform the nature of today’s societies in terms of carbon emissions to make a global low-carbon economy possible. Collective action at a global level is needed for this revolution to succeed.

Mr. Blair explained that the low-carbon revolution would need to be on the size and scale as the industrial revolution to have the global impact necessary. He pointed out that in many areas of technology, things that we thought impossible will soon be seen as irreplaceable, but to enable this to occur governments needed to provide business and industry with a clear and long-term direction, as the private sector has the ability to act faster and provide solutions that governments themselves would be unable to do.

The former Prime Minister pointed out that already there are many solutions, but if they do not fly politically, they are of no use in solving the problem. Solutions need to be practical, and make a real difference to people’s lives. He felt that carbon markets were an essential part to any solution, in bringing finance to the solutions available, and that there needed to be a transformation in the way that we as a global community grow.

Tony Blair mentioned that technologies such as clean coal, nuclear power all have there part to play, but that although seen as unsexy to many, energy efficiency technologies must be at the centre of any solution. He felt that people, and the public at large were waiting for Ministers to give the lead. The call for action was loud, clear and urgent. He said that everyone at this meeting knew what needed to be done, and the rough and difficult path this involved, but we would all lose if we failed to show the political will and leadership needed.

I am in Chiba, Japan, for the fourth Ministerial Meeting of the Gleneagles Dialogue on Climate Change, Clean Energy and Sustainable Development. The two-day meeting begins tomorrow, with a keynote presentation by Tony Blair, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. This meeting will feed into Japan’s G8 Summit in Hokkaido, on 7-9 July.

The Gleneagles Dialogue was launched at the G8 Gleneagles Summit in July 2005, and is a process that brings together 20 countries with the greatest energy needs, including the G8, and the major emerging economies of Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa, and allows them to informally discuss innovative ideas and new measures to tackle climate change outside the formal negotiations under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC).

I will continue to report as the meeting goes on, but in the meantime you may also be interested to know that REEEP/REEGLE now has a group on Facebook (www.facebook.com), where we would be delighted to discuss relevant issues and hear your views of the Partnership.

WIREC is over and we all are back in our offices now. Time to write a short conclusion.

WIREC 2008 was a really impressing conference with a very good trade show. The reegle booth (which was located at the German Pavilion in cooperation with BMU) was very well attended and we could present reegle to many very interested people. Several new contacts could be established and I am looking forward to these new partnerships and cooperations. It was really a pleasure to be part of this exhibition and to support WIREC with our customized search for “Best Practices”

Some interesting links to get up-to-date:

• You can find some outcomes of WIREC on the WIREC website as well as on this site
• You can find a list of all collected pledges at the REN21 website.
• You can find an interesting interview about the need of policymakers to push Renewable Energy here.

WIREC seems to be the biggest and the largest edition so far and good to see that ACORE and Mike Eckhart who are part of the REEEP regional secretariat for Latin America are playing a key role. I remember Mike investing considerable amounts of time during the formative stages of ACORE (then ACRE) and good to see the pay back.  The role of REEEP in the regional consultations and usefulness of reegle as a knowledge management tool were acknowledged several times by US Government and other agencies.

The REEEP side event was well attended and the Irish Minister made the key note speech, highlighting and supporting the REEEP programmes and how they were important to Ireland. The Norwegian government representative Eva Paaske provided the background about the Norwegian support to REEEP and the importance of REEEP. Griff Thompson ably moderated the session where the REEEP secretariats presented the outcomes from regional consultations - Amy, Amanda , Mark and Chuck made presentations on the consultation outcomes. Interesting to see the similarities of needs across the regions. Chuck does a good job at facilitation and has a future if he decides to become a talk show host! It was a good event and all the effort in planning and coordination put in by John was evident.

The wednesday’s session on national and subnational partnerships had a presentation from Marianne highlighting the REEEP experience and perspectives and drawing upon some REEEP projects such as WGA’s effort on clean and diversified energy. There were other interesting presentations in the session from Intel, EPA etc. Paul Suding of Ren21 moderated and summaried well. Sorry to hear that Paul was leaving Ren21 bacause of personal reasons. I wish him well.

The meeting of parties was hosted at the Australian Embassy and was well attended. It would hve been good if Morgn was able to attend. Henry chaired his last meeting as the GB chair but will continue as a member representing IETA. Henry was an able administrator and a brilliant strategist. We will miss his guidance.

The South African minister presented the conclusions from the regional consultations in the concluding plenary which was received very well. All the copies of the report vanished from the desk within minutes after the speech.  The minister also expressed keenness for her government to work with REEEP. Something to consider for the next programme cycle.

Several meetings on the sidelines with project implementing organisations, WADE, WRI, UNF, GVEP etc. and several interesting suggestions about future REEEP work.

During the day (Wednesday) more than 80 pledges were collected.

I just want to show you some highlights:

Australia:

• Renewables to account for 20% of the electricity supply in 2020
• Implement a national Renewable Energy Target scheme that includes a legislated annual target of 45,000 gigawatt-hours in 2020

Council of European Union:

• A minimum of a 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 compared to 1990 levels
• 20% share of renewable energies in final energy consumption by 2020
• 10% minimum target for the share of biofuels in overall transport petrol and diesel consumption by 2020

German Federal Ministry for Economics and Technology:

• Facilitate the feed of biogas from domestically produced biomass into the natural gas network
• By 2030 Germany can develop biogas potential equivalent to 10% of the current consumption of natural gas; 6% is to be achieved by 2020
• The ordinance will specify the duty to connect biogas plants to the natural gas network and expand the existing prioritization rules for biogas feed-in

Norway:

• Attain carbon neutrality by 2050
• Increase support for clean energy in developing countries by NOK 400 million in 2008
• Establish energy R&D strategy (Energy21)
• Reach new national combined target for renewable energy and energy efficiency: 30 TWh increased annual production from 2001 to 2016

You can have a look on all the highlights here.

Day two of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference began with a visit from President Bush, who toured the trade show floor before speaking at the ministerial.
There he pointed out the U.S. strategy for reducing oil use in America, and discussed current initiatives to increase energy efficiency and renewable energy use. He also called for an international agreement to slow, stop, and reverse the growth of greenhouse gases and he announced the U.S. commitment of $2 billion over the next three years to create an international clean energy technology fund (to help developing countries finance renewable energy projects).

You can read the full speech here.