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| Thursday, 29 July 2004 |
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International conference on renewable sources of energy by Ravisara S. Kariyawasam At the world summit on sustainable development in September 2002 in Johannesburg, German Chancellor Gehard Shroeder announced that Germany would host an International Conference for Renewable Energies.
The action plan The conference's participants have put together an action program in which they have made a voluntary commitment to activities aimed at increasing the use of renewable energy. Here are the pledges of some countries. China: It has pledged to boost the share of renewable sources to 10 per cent of installed energy production by 2010. The level is to rise to 12 per cent two years later. Egypt: It has planned to raise the share of renewable sources in electricity production to 14 per cent by 2012. Germany: It is supporting the creation of local electricity supply systems in Afghanistan, helping small companies in southern Africa build clean-running power plants and providing financial aid for the construction of wind-energy facilities in Egypt. Currently Germany is the world's largest producer of wind energy with 15,800 turbines that generate 6 per cent of the country's total electricity supplies. German Chancellor Gehard Shroeder announced that the federal Government will set up a special facility for renewable energies and energy efficiency with a volume of up to 500 million euros. Beginning in 2005, over a period of five years the facility will be used to offer low interest loans for investments in developing countries to public and parastatal institutions, banks and also private sector organisations. As a developing country this is indeed good news for Sri Lanka. The former capital of Germany, Bonn, received the European Energy award. The City's Lady Mayor Barbel Dieckmann received the award at a reception hosted by the city of Bonn and the state of North Rhine Westphalia. Record high oil prices The record high oil prices prevailing lately have made the workable concept of renewable energy all the more significant. The European Union's Environmental Commissioner thinks something good may come out of the price surge that is jolting the international oil market right now. "The current crisis will help us," Margot Wallstrom said. That help will awaken interest in renewable sources of energy and electricity conservation, Wallstrom said. "We are so dependent on crude oil that we have become vulnerable," she said. The EU Commissioner made the comments during a wire-service interview she gave at this Renewables 2004 conference. The world certainly cannot afford to continue depending only on crude oil, because the harmful consequences of doing so are not in the distant future as many people are accustomed to think. The following crisis in Tuvalu demonstrates this. Day after tomorrow It's already the day after tomorrow for some small island states in the South Pacific, as the rising sea dissolves the land from under residents' feet. One of those states, Tuvalu, is already relocating some of its 11,000 residents to New Zealand. The island county takes the Hollywood global-warming movie - 'The Day After Tomorrow' seriously. "Reality may not be as dramatic, but climate change is nevertheless devastating for small island developing states like Tuvalu," the government of Tuvalu said in a release. Sea water is bubbling up in the middle of some islands, killing crops and contaminating drinking water. This spring, people had to wade through water to get to their houses because of tides rising every year. The country also is experiencing more severe and more frequent cyclones, which the government blames on global warming. Tuvalu calls on the global community to move away from fossil fuels and quickly develop viable, environmentally friendly, renewable sources of energy. "No nation, no matter how big or small, can ignore the fact that climate change is here," according to the Tuvalu statement. "It is happening." If all the developing countries in the world turn a blind eye on taking up renewable sources of energy until they are fully developed, the cumulative effect of pollution will certainly cause adverse and irreversible detrimental changes to the environment. Therefore it is time that Sri Lanka as a developing country inherent with renewable sources of energy, starts focusing on this viable solution, to meet its growing demand for energy. |
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Produced by Lake House |
As announced the international conference was hosted by Germany from
1st to 4th of June this year in Bonn, the former capital of West Germany.
Approximately 3,000 representatives from 154 countries participated in
this extravagant meeting of people.
