Energy security overlooked in "Earth Summit 2" - IEA
Date: 29-May-02
Country: FRANCE
The West's energy watchdog said it will take its message that there can be no sustainable development without a secure energy supply to the Indonesian island of Bali, where the U.N. is holding final preparatory meetings for the World Summit on Sustainable Development, opening in August in South Africa.
"One critical area appears to be overlooked in the current United Nations discussions in preparation for Johannesburg: energy security," said IEA Executive Director Robert Priddle.
Priddle was presenting a document that shows how the principles of sustainable development can be applied in the energy sector and highlights eight areas where action is needed, including energy security.
"In the IEA's view, there can be no sustainable development without a secure energy supply to underpin essential economic activity and provide services to society," the energy arm of the Paris-based OECD said.
Environmentalists have expressed pessimism much will be achieved during two weeks of talks in Bali and accuse the United States and oil-exporting nations of trying to scale down the action plan because of fears about the impact it could have on business and profits.
Members from the mainly industrialised nations of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development have endorsed the IEA document and its 25 specific recommendations as a contribution to the Johannesburg summit.
"While these recommendations were designed for the IEA member countries, they also apply globally," the agency said.
The IEA said that a projected 57 percent increase in mainly fossil-fuel based energy demand over the next 20 years will exert enormous pressure on the global environment.
"We are not on a sustainable energy path unless we make considerable changes," Priddle said.
The U.N. summit in Johannesburg will run from August 26 to September 4, a decade after the landmark Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, where a blueprint was agreed for balancing the world's economic and social needs with its environmental resources.
But most objectives have not been met and the U.N. plans to jumpstart the process with a draft plan for what has been dubbed Earth Summit 2.
The summit broadly calls for cutting poverty, improving sanitation and access to electricity, preserving natural ecosystems, changing harmful patterns of consumption and focusing special attention on impoverished Africa.