Promotion of a New Paradigm of
Energy Change
Stabilization of global concentrations of greenhouse gases,
a prerequisite to stabilizing mean global temperatures, will —
in light of population and industrial growth — require roughly
a ten-fold reduction in intensity of carbon dioxide or equivalent
emissions per unit of energy output. This is unlikely to be
achieved through traditional regulatory approaches that tend
to resemble King Canute's trying to sweep back the tide.
Yet a model for the sweeping change needed for true climate protection
may exist in the revolution in computers and telecommunications
of the last two generations. In 1951, UNIVAC, the first great
commercial scale computer emerged. It would have cost roughly
ten million in current dollars and required a team of scientists
to operate. Today a laptop computer connected to the Internet
would cost one five thousandth of UNIVAC's price, be thousands
of times more powerful and capable of being operated by a child.
In telecommunications, countries are skipping the poles and wires
phase and going to systems based on satellites and mobile phones.
For the past seven years the Climate Institute has advanced a
paradigm of energy change based on scaling up of markets and focusing
especially on the needs of the two billion people, largely in
rural areas of developing countries, who lack access to electricity.
This change in energy systems — production and use — has
been advanced in the following main program areas: the Green
Energy Partnership Initiative, the Small Islands Initiative and
US Domestic Programs.
Green Energy Partnership Initiative
After completing the eight-country Asian Regional Study on Global
Environmental Issues in 1994, the Climate Institute called for
an international public private partnership to accelerate renewable
and other greenhouse benign energy. Out of the Institute's efforts
to promote a new energy paradigm came an innovative idea to spur
dramatic change in the way the world produces and consumes energy
while imposing little or no marginal cost on developed and developing
countries alike.
This program called the Green Energy Partnership Initiative was
designed with the notion that by melding emissions and stabilization
scenarios with solutions integrating policy, finance and technological
options, we could influence the tone and direction of Framework
Convention negotiations.
It was designed to be undertaken with a coalition of groups including
scientific, financial, technological and policy organizations
to focus on an equally large group of climate change constituencies-the
private business community, private financial institutions, multilateral
lending banks, national governmental energy R&D programs and
international negotiating efforts.
Read more
Small Island State Greening Initiative
While Small Island Developing States (SIDS) produce only a tiny
fraction of global greenhouse gas emissions, many, because of
their location barely above sea level, are among the most vulnerable
to the effects of climate change such as sea level rise and extreme
weather conditions. Compounding this challenge, SIDS struggle
with expensive fossil fuel imports and an inability to supply
electricity in rural areas. However, these nations are especially
suited to utilize combinations of modern renewable energy technologies
and energy efficiency.
Since mid-1998 the Climate Institute has worked
closely with members of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS)
to strengthen their capacity to adapt to climate change and to
assist them in transforming their energy systems to a non-fossil
fuel energy source.
The Institute, in partnership with four other world-class organizations,
has also invested resources in making this a reality on small
island states of the Caribbean and South Pacific.
Read more
Caribbean Countries Set Ambitious Energy Targets
Johannesburg, September 2, 2002 - Three Caribbean Island Nations
have told the World Summit in Johannesburg that they have set
themselves ambitious targets for renewable energy.
Read more
Press Briefing: Small Island States Leading
by Example
The Governments of Dominica, St. Lucia and Grenada will announce
their commitments to sustainable energy and challenge the world
community to follow their example at a press briefing on September
2, 2002 in Johannesburg, South Africa during the second week of
the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
Read more
US Domestic Initiatives
The Institute has worked extensively with municipal, state and
the US federal government to promote renewable energy and improve
energy efficiency in US cities. It has cooperated with groups
such as the Department of Energy's Rebuild America Program, the
Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star Program, the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Agency and other nonprofits
such as the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives
and Southface Energy Institute to organize regional workshops
on energy efficiency measures and to produce publications on financing
energy upgrades.
The
Institute also initiated a process to assist the North American
Regional Office of UNEP in its energy upgrades as part of its
New York City office renovation.
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