انرژی و اجلاس جهانی توسعه پایدار: بعد چی؟

Given the importance of energy issues to sustainable development, energy was a priority issue at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in August 2002. The objective of this paper is to examine the outcomes of the Summit on energy, and to assess them against proposals to address the lack of access to modern energy and the need to move toward a cleaner energy system. We find that lack of political leadership from key countries prevented agreement not only on targets for renewable energy, but also on a programme to promote access. The achievements of the Summit were limited to enabling activities such as capacity building and technology transfer, rather than substantive agreements. While WSSD put energy higher on the agenda than before, no institutional home or programme to take the issues forward has emerged. This therefore remains a critical challenge to be addressed. Achieving this broad goal will require building a coalition to promote cleaner energy, and committing resources to programme for energy access. Based on analysis of proposals and the negotiations, we propose several key areas where progress is still possible and necessary, including: shifting more international public and private energy financing toward access investments and cleaner energy investments, advancing regional approaches to access and renewable energy targets, and a range of mechanisms to strengthen institutional capacity for integrating energy and sustainable development.

Energy is critical to economic and social development, but depending on the way it is produced, transported and used, it can contribute to both local environmental degradation, such as air pollution, and global environmental problems, principally climate change (Davidson and Sokona, 2001; Farinelli, 1999; Johannson and Goldemberg, 2002). Providing affordable, adequate, and reliable modern energy supplies to the vast majority of the world's population remains a major challenge: these supplies are still beyond the reach of some two billion people (UNDP et al., 2000b). At the same time, current methods of producing and using energy have environmental and health impacts that increasingly endanger the welfare of communities and biodiversity world-wide, while problems of oil supply security are linked to increasing regional political instability (Goldemberg, 1996; Holdren and Smith, 2000; Romm and Lovins, 1993). The environmental impact that has received the most attention in the 10 years since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) is climate change, and this problem cannot be addressed without major changes in the energy sector (IPCC, 2001c). The challenge for the global energy sector is twofold: first, to dramatically increase access to affordable, modern energy services in countries that lack them, especially for poor communities; and, secondly, to find the mix of energy sources, technologies, policies, and behavioural changes that will reduce the adverse environmental impacts of providing necessary energy services. Energy was one of the key themes in the World Summit on Sustainable Development, and this was an opportunity to take stock of international accomplishments and identify specific national and international action plans for moving forward. With the Summit now past, it is time to reflect on whether the outcomes match the challenges, and what actions are required to implement the energy aspects of the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation (UN, 2002). The objective of this paper is to examine the outcomes of the Summit on energy, framed primarily by a proposal put forward by the Africa group for a comprehensive plan of action to address the lack of access to modern energy and the need to move toward a cleaner energy system. The outcomes of the Summit are examined from their capacity to address the challenges for energy and development. If they fall short, then the international community needs to consider how to take forward the principles agreed in Johannesburg. We acknowledge that while international effort is needed, a significant number of domestic policies and measures can make major contributions to meeting these challenges, which have been explained elsewhere (Farinelli, 1999; Jefferson, 2000; Reddy et al., 1997). Our task, however, is to identify those international actions that will support the implementation of national policies to promote sustainable development. The next section briefly reviews the key issues related to energy and sustainable development. This is followed by discussion of the proposals on access to energy services and cleaner energy for WSSD. Section 5 then analyses the outcomes of WSSD for energy, and finally Section 6 discusses the way forward.

6.1. A home for energy The first challenge in finding a way forward is to set the goals and time-frames that could not be agreed at WSSD. To do this, an appropriate forum for discussion needs to be identified—one that has a specific focus on energy, but addresses the economic, social and environmental impacts of energy production and use as part of a larger framework. This could build on the Africa Group proposal for greater coordination among existing institutions. Such a programme is still needed to carry out four groups of functions: • agreeing on goals and time-tables and monitoring progress towards them; • disbursing funds for investments in energy access and cleaner energy; • providing additional technical support, capacity building, and information dissemination; and • co-ordinating and/or sharing information about the activities of existing institutions—both within and outside of the UN—on energy access and cleaner energy. These functions do not all necessarily have to be in the same place. UNDP, for example, is the main technical support agency within the UN on development assistance, and does not fund major investments, but only smaller projects that will catalyse larger initiatives. Large scale infrastructure financing has generally been through multi-lateral and bilateral development banks (e.g. World Bank, regional development banks) and the private sector. UNEP also runs large programmes that deal with cleaner energy sources and development, but again the funding is related to capacity building and technical support, not infrastructure financing. In the absence of an institutional structure or co-ordinated programme, energy access issues should be addressed on an ongoing basis through some form of Global Energy Forum, which could either be a non-UN, multi-stakeholder group, similar to current Global Forum on Sustainable Energy, or a model similar to the World Commission on Dams that would develop guidelines or priorities for energy access programmes or funding. 6.2. Political leadership Political leadership will be required on both energy access and cleaner energy. On cleaner energy, a major step forward would be if the EU is also to enlarge its partnership of “like minded countries”. While the CSD may continue to debate these issues, no concrete progress is likely without leadership by progressive countries and regions. Developing countries need to reflect why they failed to coordinate their efforts for promoting access. Major investments in energy access will not occur if the G77 does not call for it clearly. The most important step for renewable energy, however, is likely to be the entry into force of the Kyoto Protocol, which is expected in 2003 after Russia ratifies. These targets within the Protocol, even with the US outside of this framework, will induce increased investment in RE both in the North and, through the Clean Development Mechanism, in the South (Spalding-Fecher, 2002b). 6.3. Action on access Even though WSSD failed to agree on a major global access programme, the concepts of the access fund and shifting financing remain important. Accelerated access to energy services will be essential to meeting any of the targets agreed in the JPOI. The access fund could still be created within the multilateral system, even if all countries could not agree at WSSD. More importantly, donor coordination, such as the OECD Development Assistance Committee, should still consider a much more coordinated and large-scale approach to financing access to energy services, including monitoring the impact of the access programmes. Shifting the portfolio of ECAs is also still on the agenda, and should be taken up in the climate change negotiations. One option for integrating energy access issues into mainstream development co-operation would be, for example, including energy specialists within country offices of World Bank, IMF, Regional development banks, and bilateral aid agencies. Bilateral and multilateral development assistance strategies should also include energy access as a priority issue. Even more importantly, political commitment is needed to ensure that market reform programmes (such as structural adjustment programmes), particularly privatisation, do not compromise access goals.