Renewable Energy Gathers Steam

Stephen Leahy Email 06.04.04

The Philippines and China announced ambitious renewable-energy targets at a major international conference on clean energy in Bonn, Germany, this week. However, the United States, Canada, Australia and Japan resisted the whole idea of targets and timetables.

German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin argued that renewable energy helps countries avoid conflicts over oil, protects the climate, reduces air pollution and creates jobs. Germany is the world's leading producer of renewable energy, employing more than 120,000 people in the industry, said Trittin.

The European Union, before it expanded to include 10 nations on May 1, pledged to tap renewable sources to meet 22.1 percent of its energy needs by 2010.

China committed to producing 20 gigawatts -- enough power for about 20 million average California homes -- from wind by 2020, said Janet Sawin, a renewable-energy researcher at the Worldwatch Institute.

"It's extremely important for countries to set targets, that's how the Europeans have taken the lead," Sawin said at the Renewables 2004 conference in Bonn.

At one time the United States was the world leader in renewable-energy production and technology, but it has fallen behind countries like Germany, Norway, Spain and Britain.

Given security issues, the high cost of oil, dependence on foreign energy imports, pollution problems and global warming, it's bewildering that the federal government hasn't set any targets for renewables or put effective energy policies in place, Sawin said.

While wind has become fairly cost-competitive in the energy market, strong federal policies that encourage renewable production are needed to create long-term markets for green energy so companies will invest in the technology. Said Sawin, "People should remember that conventional energy like coal has its own subsidies and comes with hidden costs like air pollution."

It's also important for the United States to develop renewable energy technology to assist the developing world. Approximately 2 billion people don't have access to electricity mainly because they don't have oil or coal resources nearby and can't afford to import it. Locally produced green energy is their best energy option, Sawin said.

And without alternatives, rapidly developing countries like China and India have become major emitters of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants. Fortunately, the Europeans are selling their wind and other renewable technologies to these countries, Sawin observes.

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Day before tomorrow: It's already the day after tomorrow for some small island states in the South Pacific, as the rising sea dissolves the land from under residents' feet. One of those states, Tuvalu, is already relocating some of its 11,000 residents to New Zealand. The island country takes the Hollywood global-warming movie The Day After Tomorrow seriously. "Reality may not be as dramatic, (but) climate change is nevertheless devastating for small island developing states like Tuvalu," the government of Tuvalu said in a release.

Sea water is bubbling up in the middle of some islands, killing crops and contaminating drinking water. This spring, people had to wade through water to get to their houses because of tides rising every year. The country also is experiencing more severe and more frequent cyclones, which the government blames on global warming.

Tuvalu calls on the global community to move away from fossil fuels and quickly develop viable, environmentally friendly, renewable sources of energy.

"No nation, no matter how big or small, can ignore the fact that climate change is here," according to the Tuvalu statement. "It is happening."

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Public pessimistic: On the eve of the June 5 World Environment Day, a new poll showed that 67 percent of Americans believe that the U.S. government should do more to shield the environment from harm.

"Americans want concrete efforts taken to protect the environment," said Dan Esty, a professor at the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies who worked on the poll with the Global Strategy Group.

Nearly 59 percent also rate the overall quality of the country's environment as only fair or poor, and some 50 percent believe things are getting worse. Just 3 percent say America's environment is excellent.

As for global environmental conditions, 75 percent rank them as only fair or poor, and 63 percent say conditions are getting worse.

"One of the hallmarks of our country has always been that one generation has passed on to the next generation a better life: better jobs, better technology and a better standard of living. To a certain extent, the price of that has been the health of our environment -- and now people are saying, 'I'm worried about the environment, we need to take better care of it, and it's part of what makes for higher quality of life," Esty said in a release.

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