UK Panel Looks at Ways Financial Community Can Boost Solar
Energy
"Britain will meet the Climate Convention of reducing greenhouse
gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2000," Sir Crispin Tickell asserted.
Sir Crispin is Convenor of the British Government Panel on Sustainable
Development. He attributed this success to the switch from coal
to gas and "to some extent the current economic recession." For
the future, the government is committed to increasing petrol prices
on a continuing basis by five percent more than inflation.
Europeans are much more likely than Americans to acknowledge
that even small climate changes may have a very big effect on
society, said Jeremy Leggett, Director of the Oxford Solar Investment
Summit. The fear that companies may not be able to honor their
insurance contracts has captured the attention not only of the
insurance industry in Europe but also the banking community. More
than 60 insurance companies signed an insurance commitment in
November 1995, stating, "We will seek to consider environmental
considerations in our asset management."
One banker has remarked, "We must recognize the financial markets
will be affected by climate change." And another has said, "There
is substantial risk. It does not appear risks are being adequately
discounted in the market."
The Chartered Insurance Institute has laid down a challenge,
said Leggett: All investment managers should modify their investment
accounts to make allowance for global warming. Clearly there are
enormous opportunities to finance the various alternative energy
systems. In strategic planning the focus should be on solar photovoltaics,
and there is a role financial institutions can play in solar markets.
Are insurance companies changing their investment pattern? John
Topping asked. "The jury is still out," Leggett replied.
In the UK, according to Leggett, there is only one solar PV building,
and the country has a much worse record in spending on solar energy
then either the US or Japan. However, several major European institutions
have expressed interest in a collaborative market-building exercise
in solar photovoltaics.
We should focus on marketing to change energy use; price will
not solve the problem, said David Freeman, former general manager
of the Sacramento Municipal Utility district and former chairman
of the Tennessee Valley Authority. The world doesn't know that
the cost of photovoltaic power has declined faster than the price
of coal has fallen, he said. The march of technology is taking
place but the public is still oblivious. However, if you put a
solar panel on a home to run four light bulbs, a black and white
TV, a radio cassette, or to help the family to read, you will
have much more success, he said. We are not going to go much further
on government support, but there is an opportunity in the private
market, and we should persuade the oil companies to go into the
solar business for their survival.
