11 Jul
2006 - Geneva, Switzerland – The link between
climate security and energy security cannot be
underplayed, according to WWF. A new briefing
from the global conservation organization shows
how investing in a secure climate future will
also bring benefits to a more secure energy system.
The briefing, No energy security
without climate security, says that G8 nations
can best contribute to increased energy and climate
security by promoting, investing in, and regulating
energy-efficiency measures and renewable energy.
This will limit damage to the climate and reduce
reliance on long, unsafe links to fossil fuel
supplies in a cost-effective way.
“The concept of energy security
is meaningless unless it is seen in the wider
context of climate security, where the over-riding
threat is climate change caused primarily by fossil
fuel use,” says Jennifer Morgan, Director of WWF’s
Global Climate Change Programme.
“The G8 has an enormous responsibility
to steer the world away from climate change and
energy insecurity, towards a safe and secure future
with a stable climate. They can’t push their responsibility
from one G8 Summit to the next. They have to come
up with answers and decisions now.”
Governments should embark on
a serious global "climate and energy security
plan" similar in dimension to the Marshall
plan after the Second World War. The plan would
aim at dramatically improving energy-efficiency
measures and renewable energy sources to insure
global emissions of CO2 and other climate pollutants
peak and decline in the next ten to fifteen years.
WWF’s briefing calls on G8 countries
to make such a plan possible by switching current
subsidies to conventional fuels, currently running
at US$250 billion a year, to funding a highly
ambitious efficiency and renewables initiative.
To avoid dangerous climate change,
the consensus is to keep global average temperature
below 2°C (3.4°F) above pre-industrial
times. Currently the world is already at 0.7°C
above that reference. Emissions are growing at
a staggering pace: they were at 25 billion tons
CO2 in 2003 and could grow to 33.6 billion tons
in 2015 if nothing happens (Source: US Energy
Information Administration).
The last G8 Summit held at Gleneagles
in the United Kingdom put climate change firmly
on the G8 agenda, with leaders committing to a
series of actions and a continuing dialogue.
“The G8’s topic of energy security
at this year's summit has the potential to either
build on the continuing Gleneagles Dialogue or
to distract from it,” adds Morgan.
“A narrow discussion on the
security of energy supply will not see G8 offering
leadership on the issues of providing energy safely
with a secure climate in the long-term.”
This year's G8 Summit will be
held from 15–17 July in St Petersburg, Russia.
Brian Thomson / Martin Hiller
