By Jennifer
Morgan*
12 Jul 2006 - With oil and gas
prices at record highs and fears mounting over
future supplies, global energy security will take
centre stage at this year’s meeting of the Group
of Eight (G8) industrialized nations.
As heads of states meet in Russia
— one of the world’s largest energy exporters
and a country benefiting from record energy profits
— they will no doubt call for greater cooperation
to ensure that the global economy is not harmed
by unstable oil prices and political instability
in many energy-producing nations.
At this time last year, G8 leaders
touted climate change as a top priority, but this
upcoming meeting in St Petersburg appears set
to ignore the issue in order to focus on securing
energy supplies.
But there will be no real energy
security without a stable and secure environment,
particularly in an environment that is being threatened
by the ill effects of climate change.
As climate change is the single
most important environmental, if not global challenge
that we are facing today, we need a plan. Not
just any plan, but a comprehensive climate and
energy security plan akin to the Marshall Plan
after World War II that helped rebuild Europe
— a plan that attempts to restore the Earth’s
fragile ecosystem by cutting polluting gas emissions
and dramatically improving energy efficiency.
Every litre of oil or gas, every
bit of coal that we humans burn, adds to the increasing
level of heat-trapping greenhouse gas emissions,
like carbon dioxide (CO2), which is a by-product
of burning these fossil fuels. About 23 billion
tonnes of CO2 are spewed into the Earth's atmosphere
every year — most of it by western industrialized
countries. This build-up of CO2 and other gases
are contributing to global warming.
Scientific consensus shows that
we face grave risks if global temperatures rise
2°C above those of pre-industrial times. Many
around the world have already had a taste of what
this would bring with temperatures up just 0.7°C
— more frequent and severe storms and heat waves,
drought, melting glaciers and rising sea levels.
Such events can have immense security and economic
implications, including crop failures in key food
producing areas, border disputes over resources,
mass movement of “environmental” refugees, and
the spending of billions of dollars needed to
cope with natural disasters.
To help mitigate these risks,
we need effective policies to reduce global warming
before carbon emissions increase to such a point
that they become too difficult to reverse. We
need a resounding commitment by governments at
the G8 Summit to energy efficiency, conservation
measures and renewable energies.
More efficient use of energy
must be seen as a crucial part of minimizing our
dependence on fossil fuels and reducing CO2 emissions.
By legislating national standards, energy consumption
can be easily improved. A recent study calculated
that stand-by power consumption, particularly
for computers, amounts to up to 13 per cent of
residential electricity use in many OECD countries.
If households cut energy use by 1 per cent a year,
savings would be significant, especially when
added to other climate protection schemes such
as switching from coal to natural gas as an intermediary
bridging fuel and increasing renewable energy
use.
Renewable energies are especially
relevant from a security viewpoint as they diversify
energy sources, promote efficiency and reduce
reliance on extended supply routes and vulnerable
infrastructure. There has been an explosive investment
growth in wind, solar, sustainable biomass, geothermal
and other technologies, and many are now competitive
suppliers, even in the face of massive subsidies
given to the fossil fuel industry. With ambitious
support and simultaneous expansion of energy conservation,
realistic targets are possible. Sustainable biomass
could supply 15-30 per cent of electricity in
OECD companies by 2020, and wind could supply
12 per cent of global electricity in the next
20 years.
More and more people are increasingly
aware of the importance of saving energy, not
just because it means less impact on their pocketbooks,
but less impact on the planet. Our aspirations
for the future cannot be met unless we start to
tread more gently upon the thin crust of the sphere
upon which our lives depend, and take better care
of the atmosphere that sustains us.
Just as the Marshall Plan looked
to ensure stability in Europe at a time of great
uncertainty, G8 leaders today have an enormous
responsibility to steer the world away from climate
change and energy insecurity towards a safe and
secure future through a stable climate.
* Jennifer Morgan is Director
of WWF’s Global Climate Change Programme.
