E3G

Delhi Sustainable Development Summit: Energy Issues

By Chris Littlecott

E3G’s Nick Mabey has been participating in this week’s Delhi Sustainable Development Summit. Yesterday he was a speaker in the session ‘Energy for Sustainable Development’, details of which follow below.

The DSDS website also carries a short online biography of Nick. We’ll aim to post more news on Nick’s trip on his return next week.

Energy for Sustainable Development

It is now beyond doubt that the energy choices we make have a direct bearing on our efforts to attain sustainable development.

Nick Mabey (on far left)
at Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2007

Session 3 of DSDS 2007 saw focused discussions around making the right energy choices, and in a manner that leads to a decisive shift of development paradigms towards just and sustainable models.

Speakers in the session agreed that the year 2006 has been a minor watershed in the context of energy use, with governments, business, scientists, and society making measurable efforts to reduce the use of fossil fuels, increase awareness of the environmental complications arising from fossil fuel emissions, and promote new and renewable energy systems.

However, the magnitude of the challenge facing the sustainable development movement can be gauged by the fact that such initiatives have barely scratched the surface of the problem. The fact remains that global energy demand is going to continue to increase, and fossil fuels will be the only widely available option to meet the increased demand.

The challenge before the world community is to increase the basket of options available to a world hungry for more energy, and fill that basket with clean technologies and renewable sources of energy.
To achieve this, speakers suggested several strategies, central to which was the need to foster greater cohesion and collaboration between stakeholders.

PPPs (public–private partnerships) have a key role to play in this context. The traditional template for PPP – an institutional arrangement between the private sector and governments – needs to be redefined and expanded to include civil society and local bodies. Governments, it was suggested, should make more concerted efforts to create an enabling environment for the blossoming of PPPs and the integration of energy, environment, and society. A clear regulatory framework, an incentive regime, and policy support were some of the mechanisms governments could consider.

Speakers also spoke about the need for greater international consensus on energy issues, especially the urgent issue of reducing the environmental impacts of fossil fuel consumption. They noted that while developing nations must approach the energy–environment question within their broader development goals, it is important for developed countries to take a lead in this regard.

Session Panelists

Chair
Dr Adnan A Shihab-Eldin, Former Acting Secretary General and Director of Research at OPEC as well as Advisor to Kuwait Petroleum Corporation, Austria

Speakers
Mr Jean-Paul Bouttes, Director, Prospective and International Relations, Electricite de France (EDF), France & CEO, Sherpa, France

Mr Pieter van Geel, Cabinet level, State Secretary, Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment, The Netherlands

Dr Bindu N Lohani, Director General - Regional and Sustainable Development Department, Asian Development Bank

Mr Nick Mabey, CEO, E3G, UK

Mr Vikram Singh Mehta, Chairman, Shell Group of Companies in India

Dr Lutz Mez, Executive Director - Environmental Policy Research Centre, University of Berlin, Germany

Ms Cornelia Richter, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH, Germany

Dr Leena Srivastava, Executive Director, TERI, New Delhi

Mr Patrick Verhagen, Senior Vice President, Holcim, Zurich