Oil exporting countries are blocking European Union efforts to form an alliance with over 100 developing countries to push for firm targets on boosting
”green” energy, Earth Summit delegates said on Sunday.
”The majority in the G77 has been taken hostage by the Opec countries,” one exasperated senior European delegate said of the Group of Seventy Seven (G77), which now represents some 130 developing countries in international negotiations.
Environment ministers at the Johannesburg summit negotiating a global action plan for reducing poverty and protecting the environment, have stumbled on the issue of how firmly to commit to promoting renewable energy sources like solar and wind power.
Most European and developing countries want to set a global target to increase the world’s use of renewables by the end of the decade but the whole concept of a global target is being opposed by the United States and OPEC countries.
The Opec position has prevented the G77 from supporting the targets favoured by many of its members, several delegates said.
An east African delegate among the G77 countries said most developing nations wanted much greater access to clean energy sources but this was being blocked by the OPEC states.
”We will never get a consensus in the G77,” he told Reuters. ”The OPEC countries are being so selfish. They don’t want clean, renewable energy. We fully agree with the EU.”
Developing countries, he said, believed that a stronger target commitment at the Earth Summit would push rich nations to do more to help poor countries invest in renewable energy.
OPEC officials were not available for comment. But delegates said OPEC member Iran was trying to broker a compromise between the wealthy oil-exporters states and the rest of the G77.
”The Bush administration is behind the worst of the energy proposals and they’re working hand in glove with Opec,” said Phil Clapp, head of US lobby National Environmental Trust.
TWO OPTIONS
US representative declined immediate comment. The United States has made clear its opposition to introducing concrete new targets in the UN document, arguing that these damage US economic flexibility, a key engine of global economic growth. It also says other countries tend to abuse such targets while Washington does stick to practical commitments it makes.
U.S. oil companies have lobbied against renewable energy targets with President George W. Bush, a former oilman himself.
EU officials say that, with the support of the developing world, they might have a chance of overcoming US resistance.
German Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said the EU was still holding out hope for a target. When asked if the proposal was quite dead, he replied: ”No. We are still negotiating.”
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said: ”Unfortunately, the G77 is letting itself be strongly dominated by the oil exporting states…This is one of the real problems.”
The EU wants the world to have 15% of its energy from renewables by 2010, up from about 14% in 2000, and for developed countries to increase their reliance on clean power by two percentage points.
Brazil has proposed a target of 10% — but one that would exclude large-scale hydro power and traditional renewable ”biomass” like firewood, giving greater emphasis to more modern technologies like solar and wind power, now rarely exploited.
Brazilian environment minister Jose Carlos Carvalho told Reuters his 10% target for ”new” renewables was still on the table but was not supported by the European bloc, although it was backed by oil producers Mexico and Norway.
”It is alive but it has a lot of objections from the G77 and the EU,” he said. The Americans are also opposed. ”We need to adopt clean affordable and cost effective technologies but, more importantly, we need to reduce the consumption of fossil fuel”.
SUPPORT FROM BIG BUSINESS
Support for a target for ”sustainable energy”, seen by environmentalists as the key to reducing the pollution from fossil fuels and the risks associated with nuclear power, has also come from some major energy multinationals.
In a letter to British Prime Minster Tony Blair obtained by Reuters, a group representing British energy firms interested in sustainable development, including BP and Royal Dutch Shell, called for action at the summit.
The Business Council for Sustainable Energy UK called on Blair to support ”an overall and firm international target for sustainable energy implementation that can build confidence for business to invest”.
Blair is due to arrive at the World Summit on Sustainable Development on Monday, one of more than 100 heads of state and government are expected to attend the meeting.
Ministers are aiming to finalise talks before then. – Reuters