The round table was opened by the Chair who stressed the importance of the results from the Commission on Sustainable Development at its 9th session (CSD-9) and the context of renewable energies (RE) for sustainable development, mainly the results of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg 2003, where the international community agreed, among substantial additional text on many aspects of energy for sustainable development, to Paragraph 19e.
19 e) Diversify energy supply by developing advanced, cleaner, more efficient, affordable and cost-effective energy technologies, including fossil fuel technologies and renewable energy technologies, hydro included, and their transfer to developing countries on concessional terms as mutually agreed. With a sense of urgency, substantially increase the global share of renewable energy sources with the objective of increasing its contribution to total energy supply, recognizing the role of national and voluntary regional targets as well as initiatives, where they exist, and ensuring that energy policies are supportive to developing countries’ efforts to eradicate poverty, and regularly evaluate available data to review progress to this end. (Johannesburg Programme of Implementation).
The importance of the contribution of RE to the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals for poverty eradication and sustainable development was also noted, since RE reduce reliance on energy imports and diversify energy supply mixes, through the use of local resources, and so contribute to energy security. RE can reduce climate impacts due to their zero greenhouse emissions and they can also reduce negative health impacts, as well as contribute to economic development of local communities and job creation, what is emphasized by UNIDO’s strategy for Rural Energy. In this context, the objective of the round table was to discuss how S-S-Cooperation for RE can increase.
The first presentation was from Ms. Suani Coelho, from the University of Sao Paulo (Brazil), who presented a technical introduction on RE and exposed the issues of biomass to the participants, as well as some examples of possible S-S cooperation in this subject.
Every year 40 to 60 billion US dollars are spent with energy infrastructure. One trillion dollars per year are spent with direct energy purchasing and even more in consumption infrastructure. Small positive shifts in the way these resources are used could strongly influence a shift to sustainable development. The experience achieved by developing countries in such way could be successfully exchanged with financial help from the developed ones.
Many countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean utilise a considerable amount of wood fuel in their energy matrixes. On the other hand, their favourable agricultural conditions are unique for the deployment of modern biomass energy systems, using sustainable wood plantations, agricultural crops (e.g. sugarcane), rural and urban residues. Biomass technologies knowledge are sufficiently well developed, making these systems competitive in many cases. The “learning curve” effect of ethanol, in Brazil, showing the reduction on ethanol production costs, is an important example of the economic feasibility of biofuels.
In her presentation she proposed a roadmap for reflection, including the creation of a network (for information exchange and capacity building), access to “patient capital” for technology transfer (S-S and N-S) and project implementation, as well as the establishment of reference centres in developing countries to coordinate actions among the countries in each region.
Mr. Mohamed Berdai, from the Centre de Développement des Energies Renouvelables (Morocco) presented the experience from Morocco on RE and the importance given by the Kingdom of Morocco to sustainable development, considering that Morocco is an oil importing country and strongly concerned with its security of energy supply. Experience of the country with photovoltaic systems for rural areas and the use of urban and rural wastes for energy production were discussed, as a way to reduce wood fuel consumption from native forests. Today Morocco still presents a high consumption on wood fuel from forests and RE systems can be an important option to reduce it.
A network for information exchange was proposed by Mr. Berdai, mainly addressed to Mediterranean countries, aiming to develop energy partnerships among these countries.
Mr. Eduardo Praselj, from the Perez-Guerrero Trust Fund (PGTF), remarked the need for strengthening (or building) the capacity for energy planning and assessment of resources, increasing of awareness on renewables potential, sharing experiences and lessons learned in energy sources, matching needs and capabilities in the countries, as well as exploring possibilities for finance.
He also described the current support of the PGTF to energy related projects on the subjects above in several developing countries.
Mr. Herbert Kroll, from the Federal Ministry for Foreign Affairs (Austria), stressed the importance of RE for rural areas and the major obstacle for its implementation – their unaffordability. They are expensive when compared with fossil fuels which continue to benefit from heavy subsidization and whose prices do not reflect external costs. They are also expensive because their markets are yet too small, so it is important to promote RE technologies and target the expansion of RE applications for near-commercial market situations, what could be done through S-S cooperation.
Austria supports UNIDO’s endeavours to work towards the introduction of a more sustainable global energy system, mainly by building capacities for the transfer and absorption of more environmentally friendly energy technologies, particularly RE sources for rural areas of developing and least-developed countries.
Mr. Reinaldo Figueredo, UNCTAD-UNDP, exhorted the participants to pay attention to the liberalisation of essential services such as energy and water and urged to give an in depth consideration of regional development integration schemes. Mr. Figueredo stressed the importance of the definition of the scope of activities as energy service, such as activities related to the development of energy sources, construction and operation of energy facilities, activities related to energy networks and to wholesale market in energy, as well as to retail supply of energy. These activities are all included in the need for adequate trade policies.
In the ensuing general debate, statements were made and specific questions raised by representatives from Algeria, Morocco, Mozambique, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela. Several points were addressed by the plenary, related to information regarding market liberalisation in developing countries, difficulties with operation and maintenance on energy systems in remote villages, funding perspectives, the importance for each country to address its own energy mix based on more efficient and cleaner technologies, as well as the importance of energy for sustainable development, addressing both social and environmental aspects
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