Opinion Sur Joven

Its price keeps rising. Maybe that’s the reason. Although they say the reason is contamination. Oil price continues to surge and climate change keeps bringing bad news. So –perhaps for environmental reasons, perhaps for economic reasons-, renewable energies have become necessary sources to explore.

Traditional energy sources (such as coal or oil) are extracted from the ground and are non-renewable. Once all reserves are extracted, they will no longer be available and the planet will be in trouble. Instead, renewable energy is obtained from inexhaustible sources, such as winds, sunlight or water streams. Lately, biofuels have become the most popular and the most criticized sources as well; fuel is obtained from biological material.

What’s the advantage of these renewable energies? On the one hand, they compensate the negative effects of oil price inflation; on the other, they reduce the chaos produced by global warming. And, finally, these energy sources could boost economic and social development if properly used.

A global forum to promote their own ideas

But this not new. Economic and political powers have acknowledged the advantages of renewable energies and, from different places and sectors, they’ve been pushing them forward. To the point that George Bush’s government –which isn’t exactly an example of environmental awareness- organized at the beginnings of March the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC), the most important forum on this subject in the world.

It was held over the course of three days and 3,000 people and 50 representatives from different governments attended. There were conferences and panels to treat all topics referring to renewable energy and their potential.

The importance of the global meeting, however, wasn’t scientific but political: in this forum, the participating countries stated their positions diplomatically but strongly. For instance, the chairman of the Chinese delegation, Zhang Xiaoqiang, requested rich countries to set goals (regarding renewable energy use) proportional to their energy consumption, and to allow emerging countries to do the same, in order to make equitable efforts.

He also announced Beijing plans to increase by 50 percent the use of renewable energies in its economy by year 2020. China, along with the U.S., is the biggest greenhouse gas emitter.

As for the German government, the head of their delegation, Michael Müller, proposed and "ecological Bretton Woods" emerging from the G8, referring to the economic agreements after World War II. Müller emphasized the fact that the climate change problem has worsened drastically, so he asked countries to move fast in order to encourage renewable energy use.

But is an “ecological Bretton Woods” possible? Is it possible considering Washington wouldn’t even sign the Kyoto Protocol? That’s somehow what this conference was about. The U.S. government spent millions of dollars organizing it to basically show their developments regarding two important issues on the current international agenda: energy and environment.

WIREC’s slogan was “The Power of Independence”. It wasn’t casual. The White House supports renewable energy –especially biofuels- to stop depending (at least at some point) on Middle Eastern and Venezuelan oil and, in the meantime, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a bit.

Bush’s speech on the second day of the conference was conclusive in that sense. Notwithstanding the usual criticism, he faced the situation and said that he wants to “show the world that we’re good stewards of the environment. Now, look, I understand stereotypes are hard to defeat. But (…) we’re in the lead when it comes to global climate change”.

However, Bush’s most emphatic defense for himself and his environmental and energetic policies related to the country’s conflictive dependence on oil: “… Some countries we get oil from don’t particularly like us. They don’t like the form of government that we embrace. They don’t believe in the same freedoms we believe in, and that’s a problem from a national security perspective”, so he announced he plans to reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years.

The U.S. president took advantage of the opportunity to host (and finance) the conference to publicize his environmental “accomplishments” and counteract bad publicity. According to him, Washington invested 12 billion dollars in research to develop renewable energies, among other measures.

However, not all Americans agree: According to the director of Clean Energy States Alliance, Mark Sinclair, the role of the federal government of the United States is irrelevant , they’re not at the forefront of this issue, and that’s why some states started getting together to face it. He says Bush disappointed them by misunderstanding the importance of renewable energies.

This entity was developed by 20 American states that decided to join efforts in order to find a solution to the lack of a coordinated and adequate policy from Bush’s government regarding environmental and energy problems.

As an answer to Bush’s speech on the conference, Sinclair explained to Opinión Sur Joven: “In the U.S., there isn’t a sustainable policy on renewable energy sources generated by the President. He hasn’t done much so far compared to what other governments have accomplished, such as in Germany or Japan”. And he said that although George Bush provided funds to investigate this subject, they’re still much lower in comparison with the support he provides for oil companies and nuclear power, which is cheaper but limited in time.

Furthermore, he criticized several decisions (actually, the lack of them) by the U.S. government: the refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocol, the tax policy that doesn’t protect biofuel development, the refusal to decentralize energy (which prevents regular people from generating their own alternative sources at home), etc. In the interview with Opinión Sur Joven, Sinclair highlighted that the public and the private sector need to join efforts to promote renewable energy, which in his opinion Washington doesn’t encourage, but states and districts actually do.

Colorado, a good example

Located near the snowy peaks of the Rocky Mountains, away from the noise of the city, Colorado State University (CSU) is an oasis in the United States’ energy map: it’s the main point of the necessary development model to adopt renewable energy.

Why? Because it has worked together with both the public and the private sectors, taking advantage of the fact that the State of Colorado (on the Southwestern region) “gathers natural, intellectual, financial and political resources” to promote the energetic transformation, according to Seth Porter, the deputy director of the State Energy Office.

Porter explains the State government has developed programs to exploit the potential of renewable energy use and make energy expenses more efficient in houses, municipal buildings and farms, by enabling access to –for instance- household solar panels.

“Colorado citizens encouraged to pass legislation on the matter by collecting signatures. It was the first case in the U.S.”, the official explains while enumerating their breakthroughs in terms of solar energy and wind power (more than 100 gigawatts).

Going back to the CSU particular case, its finance professor, Kim Staking, explained to Opinión Sur Joven that the renewable energy boom in Colorado is mainly possible thanks to the university’s policy, which holds a "holistic vision". “We try to find solutions for global problems, without considering economic profits only”. Staking believes the key for their success is working together with investors, the State and the local academic sector.

The university’s research budget (about 300 million dollars, granted by the local and the federal government, and private donations) finances projects that imply environmental and social benefits, which are to be exploited in the market afterwards.

Now, for example, they’ve developed an engine for taxicabs in the Philippines that saves approximately 40% of fuel, and they’re about to start selling heaters that reduce dangerous emissions and are more efficient in terms of gas consumption in low-income regions in India.

With such technological developments, the university has got 143 patents of its own, and their royalties partly finance new research projects, thus closing a virtuous circle supported by the two cornerstones of energetic transformation: environmental care and economic development.

The synergy between the different sectors in Colorado has an essential reason: due to the high price of fuel, “companies realized using renewable energy is profitable, and consumers, on the other hand, are demanding it”, Staking adds.

In world where energy consumption will increase by 50 percent by year 2030, the necessity to imitate the Colorado State University model grows every day. Especially if it helps reducing poverty and improving quality of life. Because, as Hermann Scheer (General Chairman of the World Council for Renewable Energy) said during his speech at the WIREC, “there’s no time to lose. Moving towards renewable energy is the decisive task for this century”.