CHANGING COURSE
A CONTRIBUTION TO A GLOBAL ENERGY STRATEGY

World Summit Paper #22, Changing Course: A Contribution to a Global Energy Strategy, an Öko-Institut Policy Paper by Uwe R. Fritsche and Felix Chr. Matthes; commissioned and published by the Heinrich Böll Foundation

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.

It is well known that our fossil fuel based energy system is the main cause for climate change, while a large part of the world ’s population has not even access to modern energy services, and has not partaken in the benefits of the fossil energy system. Restructuring the energy systems in the North towards environmental sustainability and “leapfrogging into the solar age ” (The Jo’burg Memo) in the South,while providing access to energy services to those so far excluded,is therefore not a uxury,but an imperative of justice towards the poor. There can be no doubt:It is the duty of Northern countries to bring their greenhouse gas emissions dramatically down within the next decades to a evel per capita that is possible to be realised by every citizen on earth without damaging the climate.

The paper addresses key challenges of the global energy system, especially regarding securing global commons and global public goods, in line with development options, i.e. a sustainable global energy economy. It discusses technological prospects, promises and myths as well as economic and political developments as well as experiences with, and recent performance of, major financial players and elaborate on future options for energy financing. To further the discussion, it gives key recommendations for a Global Energy Strategy.

The paper mainly focuses on the interaction of industrialised countries with developing countries and European countries with economies in transition with respect to energy.An introductory section deals with the overall g obal concerns and the role of the industrialised “North ”.

[ pdf; 76 pages ]