The REN21
Steering Committee oversaw the elaboration of the REN21 issue paper
Changing Climates -
The Role of Renewable Energy in a Carbon-Constrained World and released it during the UNEP Governing
Council/Global Ministerial Environment Forum in Dubai in February 2006. The report was produced and published by
UNEP Risoe Centre.
REN21 released "Changing Climates" at their side event held in Dubai, Wednesday 8 February, with the participation of Mr. John Christensen (UNEP RISØ Centre), Hon. Ms. Connie Hedegaard (Danish Minister for Environment), Mr. Klaus Töpfer (UNEP Executive Director), Mr. Peter Tulej (IEA), and Mr. Paul Suding (REN21 Secretariat).
The REN21 Report states that renewable energy must play a major role in the global
energy supply to meet the increasingly serious environmental and
economic threats of climate change. To accelerate both the development of better renewable energy
technology and markets in the next decades, policy action is required at
both national and international levels. With the current and predicted
cost competetiveness of many renewable energy technologies, it is not
necessary to wait for strenghtened global agreements before taking
action at the national level.
On request by the UK government, a team within the UK Treasury
under the leadership of Sir Nicholas Stern has studied the economics of
climate change, in particular the cost of action and the cost of
non-action. The
Stern Review presented
just before the COP12 climate conference
in Nairobi 2006 received very much attention also outside the climate
change-concerned community.
The Stern Review disproves the widespread misperceptions of many economists
regarding the cost of counteracting climate change, which
has led to a wait-and-see policy. It demonstrates that non-action
will entail dramatic global economic losses and that decisive and urgent political action
is needed to reduce them. Renewable energy is highlighted as one of the important options.
The review says that "in some sectors -
particularly electricity generation, where new technologies can struggle to
gain a foothold - policies to support the market for early-stage
technologies will be critical. The Review argues that the scale of existing
deployment incentives worldwide should increase by two to five times, from
the current level of around $34 billion per annum. Such measures will be a
powerful motivation for innovation across the private sector to bring
forward the range of technologies."
The Review underlines the importance of international policy networking: "Both informal and formal co-ordination of national policies for deployment
support can accelerate cost reductions by increasing the scale of new
markets across borders. Many countries and US states now have specific
national objectives and policy frameworks to support the deployment of
renewable energy technologies. Transparency and information-sharing have
already helped to boost interest in these."
At the United Nations COP12 Climate Conference held in Nairobi in
November 2006, REN21 was involved in a side event discussing
the IEA's World Energy Outlook 2006, which demonstrates that policies for renewables can change
energy sector CO2 emissions dramatically. For the needed scenarios to
come true, however, appropriate policy measures must be adopted.
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