CHANGING COURSE: A CONTRIBUTION TO A GLOBAL ENERGY STRATEGY

Policy Paper on a Global Energy Strategy

Sustainable Energy is a crucial and cross-cutting issue for sustainable development. Since the 1992 Rio Declaration, the energy issue has been addressed in various circles, bodies, and conferences. It was meant to appear on the official agenda of the World Summit (as suggested e.g. by the EU, and some NGO). the issue of sustainable energy is a fundamental area of global concerns, and must be addressed accordingly. Given this context, the Heinrich Boell Foundation commissioned Öko-Institut (Institute for Applied Ecology) to prepare a paper contributing to a Global Energy Strategy (GES) to be presented at the World Summit in Johannesburg.

The paper is meant to highlight crucial issues, and to further (and substantiate) the discussion on global policies with respect to the energy sector. Based on some analysis and evaluation of experiences, the paper suggests major elements and instruments of a global energy system which is not only compatible with socio-economic, and environmental “boundaries”, but pro-actively shape the course towards sustainability.

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