Milton Catelin, Chief Executive, WCA
The United Nations recently released the “zero draft” of the outcome document for the Rio+20 Earth Summit scheduled for June. There is some important material in the draft, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. In the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All the zero draft does include reference to a goal of universal access to modern energy. It also proposes doubling energy efficiency and doubling the share of renewable energy in the mix.
But the draft does have some problems.
The first problem relates to the goal for universal access to modern energy. An important goal, but the wording lacks ambition. It refers to providing “a basic minimum level of modern energy services for both consumption and production uses by 2030”. If that basic level equates to what the IEA proposes in its Energy Access for All scenario then that means “use of a floor fan, a mobile phone, and two compact fluorescent light bulbs for about five hours a day. In urban areas, consumption might also include an efficient refrigerator, a second mobile phone per household and another appliance, such as a small television or a computer.” Critically, the definition also states “some other categories are excluded, such as electricity access to business.” (See the World Energy Outlook 2011).
Access to energy is essential to addressing the problems that cause poverty. After food and shelter, energy is one of the fundamentals of modern society. Without energy, people cannot access the opportunities provided by the modern world. The world needs to be much more ambitious about the level of energy it wants to see made available to those who currently struggle with little or no electricity access.
To meet that ambition we need to be much more realistic. And there comes the second problem with the zero-draft. Rather than focusing on all low carbon energy sources the draft idealistically promotes doubling the share of renewable energy in the mix. Renewable electricity is important in meeting the world’s energy needs but it can’t do the job on its own. To ensure that both energy access and environmental goals are met, all sources of low carbon energy will be needed – which means using fossil fuels, and particularly coal, with advanced generation and carbon capture and storage technologies. According to the IEA more than half of on-grid electricity additions needed to meet their Energy Access for All scenario will come from coal. (Again see the World Energy Outlook 2011).
That means when the world convenes for the Rio+20 conference in June it must look to all sources of low carbon energy to meet more ambitious energy access targets. Otherwise we risk leaving behind the 1.3 billion people who struggle without electricity out of the clean energy revolution.
