ENERGY FOCUS AT CSD-14 REINVIGORATES DEBATE

At the fourteenth meeting of the Commission on Sustainable Development, held at the UN Headquarters on 1-12 May, political will and support for the CSD and the need for global action on energy reached a peak along with heated discussions on the roles of renewable energy technology and the private sector in the provision of energy for industrial development. The meeting was the first in the latest two-year cycle of CSD meetings, which are tasked with carrying on the work of Agenda 21, a programme of action for sustainable development adopted at the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). CSD-14 focused on the energy agenda, including energy security, the impact of oil and gas prices, renewable energy technologies, fossils fuels, industrial development, pollution and climate change.

Delegates commended the virtual absence of political posturing and the abundance of practical ideas, case studies and discussions in comparison with previous meetings of the CSD (see Bridges Trade BioRes, 29 April 2005). However, there were clear rifts among countries, non-governmental organisations and industry representatives on the relative importance of fossil fuels and renewable energy and the role of the private sector and governmental regulation. Industry groups stressed the need for an enabling international and national regulatory environment for private sector investment in the provision of energy services. WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy noted that negotiations in the WTO's Committee on Trade and Environment Special Session (CTE-SS) on environmental goods could facilitate the transfer of renewable energy technologies with positive impacts on sustainable development.

However, developing countries in the Group of 77 stressed that the energy mix of the future had to take into account both environmental and development concerns. For example, several African countries expressed scepticism about the provision of energy services by the private sector, while the small island developing states (SIDS) highlighted the impacts of energy use on climate change and their development prospects. In this context, Switzerland suggested that special and differential treatment for SIDS in the WTO could help them overcome their particular adjustment needs and overcome difficulties in their energy sector, including through moves towards renewable energy. A number of delegates and analysts from island states raised the issue of the production of biofuels in SIDS, noting that exports of agricultural biofuel crops could help compensate for reduced exports of conventional crops, including losing preferential market access as a result of Doha Round trade liberalisation.

The G-77 stressed that sustainable energy use could be encouraged through the provision of positive incentives and the removal of disincentives to alternative energy use, including though the removal of barriers to trade in renewable energy technologies, the encouragement of technology transfer and the removal of subsidies to use of fossil fuels. In this context, mention was made of the importance of WTO-led agricultural and environmental goods and services liberalisation in providing such incentives. Major exporters of fossil fuels such as Kazakhstan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, nonetheless suggested that fossil fuels are here to stay.

Delegates also highlighted the role of intellectual property rights in facilitating and governing the transfer of renewable energy technology, with some saying that stronger rights would provide better incentives for investment and transfer while potential users of the technology stressed that there would be accompanying costs.

Daily reporting is provided by IISD Linkages at http://www.iisd.ca/csd/csd14/

Documents from CSD-14 are available at http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/csd/review.htm

ICTSD Reporting; ENB Vol. 5 No. 238, 15 May 2006.