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Global Dialogue

Coverage of Monday, 19 June
Coverage of Wednesday, 21 June
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On Tuesday, 20 June 2000, Global Dialogue participants met throughout the day in the five thematic workshops. From 16:00 to 18:00, they convened in a plenary session for “A Talk Around the World” and to view mini-documentaries on success stories around the world.

ENERGY 21

The morning workshop, convened by Carl Duisberg Gesellschaft and the GEF, debated strategies to promote commercial transfers of renewable energy technologies.

Jens-Peter Molly, Executive Director, German Wind Energy Institute, gave an overview of wind energy training courses. He highlighted creating necessary knowledge about wind energy for decision makers, transferring political and technical know-how and tackling political obstacles first. He stressed transferring technical and economic know-how to enable engineers to solve wind energy application problems.

 

MARKETS 21

The morning workshop, convened by WBCSD and chaired by Dawn Rittenhouse, DuPont Corporation, addressed markets, knowledge and sustainable development.

Bas de Leeuw, Programme Director, Sustainable Consumption, UNEP Division of Technology, Industry, and Economics, stressed the importance of proper information dissemination, youth participation, training and networking, and accessible pricing in markets in order to facilitate sustainable consumption.

Georg Kell, Special Advisor to the UN Secretary General, stressed the importance of shared responsibility and self-enlightened interest. He supported the integration of developing countries in the market and noted that poverty is frequently a result of insufficient training and government failure. In creating sustainable markets, he called for attention to human rights and environment as well as trade interests.

Ezio Manzini, Director of the Italian Department of Industrial Design and Architectural Technology, outlined a society in which sustainable businesses would enable people to both live better and consume less. He called for a shift from market models based on material products to one based on service and knowledge and, beyond this, a shift in consumer ideology to value social common goods.

Edward Frieman, Chairman of the Board on Sustainable Development, USA National Research Council, called for collaborative efforts to create a new science of sustainability. He noted the Internet economy and e-commerce were creating a fundamental shift in the relationship between energy and growth and described a trend of decreased energy consumption with increased information technology.

Anne Weir, Community and NGO Affairs Manager, Corporate Relations Department. Unilever PLC, discussed ways in which responsible business could provide pathways to sustainable markets. She outlined a market programme wherein growth would not be dependent on natural resource consumption. Noting that products on the market need to be sustainable, she stressed mutual responsibility between businesses, government and consumers. She highlighted the importance of informed consumers and a community/government mandated framework of sustainability goals for businesses.

FORESTS 21

Mark Poffenberger, Director, Asia Forest Network, outlined success stories of community forestry initiatives in India, Nepal, the Philippines and Vietnam. He stressed the importance of community adaptation to environmental crisis and described community transition from state ownership of forests to new governance structures. He suggested changes stemmed from severe land degradation, poor economies and political pressures by rural people, and stressed the re-emergence of stewardship over natural resources.

Joan Pollock, Eco2000, spoke of grassroots experiences of establishing successful forest farms in New Zealand.Colleen McCrory, Valhalla Wilderness Society, spoke about British Colombia’s forest crisis, stating that almost a million hectares of forest per year are harvested. She stressed that true forest stewardship will bring about sustainability and the potential for implementation of a community ecosystem-based plan.

Discussion touched on: the importance of grassroots initiatives; emerging environmental services of forests, such as carbon and certification; and the need for investment in forestry research and the importance of global and international approaches towards forest management.


During the afternoon ...

The afternoon workshop was chaired by Michael Hanssler, Executive Director of the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development. 

Dawn Rittenhouse, Business Sustainable and Product Stewardship Leader, DuPont Corp., discussed DuPont’s new sustainable development-oriented corporate image. Methods of bringing about corporate and public awareness of this shift included the creation of environmental “to-do” lists for both the company as a whole and for individual employees.

Michael Henriques, Director, Job Creation and Enterprise Development, ILO, discussed unemployment and poverty in the sustainable development context. He discussed: ILO’s action toward self-employment in developing countries; impediments to small business growth, specifically an inadequate legal framework; ineffective government subsidies; property rights; and lack of understanding of markets. ILO programmes take on board entrepreneurial training, radio and TV publicity, management training packages, and sponsorship programmes that link small businesses with larger corporations.

 

The afternoon workshop was convened by WWF and the GEF around the theme of integrated management of international waters and achievements and challenges in the Wadden Sea and other regions.

Chair Dr. Peter Prokosch, Director, WWF-International Arctic Programme, called for reflection on conservation achievements in the Wadden Sea and discussion of future challenges, taking into account successful management examples from other regions and sectoral activities such as sustainable fisheries and tourism, as well as coastal engineering measures.

Jens Enemark, Common Wadden Sea Secretariat, gave a presentation on the trilateral sea cooperation - achievements, challenges and perspectives. Highlighting the outstanding ecological and socioeconomic role of the Wadden Sea, he pointed out the importance of political cooperation. He underscored the need to build upon the agreed guiding principles and move toward a commonly defined protection area. He outlined challenges for the future, including developing integrated and comprehensive management systems and stakeholder involvement.

Siepie de Jong, Mayor of the Municipality of Leek, The Netherlands, spoke about success and future perspectives of protected areas in the Wadden Sea.

The afternoon session addressed cooperation, co-generation – co-benefit strategic partnerships to unleash commercial potentials of renewable energy technologies.

Gunter Schramm, Consultant, International Finance Corporation, Washington DC, highlighted the combined PV-Hydro approach as a means to reduce prices to make photo-voltaic (PV) power a commercially viable option as a supplementary power source. He noted collaboration of the organizations involved and indicated the need for markets to get utilities interested in making PV part of their system.

Ramon Abaya, Chairman, Philippines Cagayan Electric Power & Light Company, discussed CEPALCO’s PV-Hydro Project under a deregulated environment. He noted the positive impacts of deregulation and the avoidable costs. He highlighted the rational for PV-Hydro conjunctive use and non-economic benefits including independence from imported fuel and reduction of gas emission. Stressing reducing the cost of renewable sources, he supported a deregulated power business environment and advocated private sector participation in addition to financial assistance while the PV market is developing.

Rolf Seifried, PV-Hydro Project Manager, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau, addressed prospects of PV within the scope of German Financial Cooperation. He noted, inter alia, the general sectoral goal to provide reliable cost effective and sustainable energy services to increase economic productivity and improve living conditions. On costs and financing, he noted PV applications have been confined to niche solutions and wider use is limited by lack of purchasing power and of sustained financing possibilities for subsidy schemes.

Andreas Wiese, Associate Team Leader, PV-Hydro Study, Lahmeyer International GmbH, outlined PV-Hydro conjunctive use study objectives and stages, system power scenarios, modular set-up of the planning model and indicated key PV issues are investment costs and operational reliability. He highlighted benefits, screening criteria, first screening results, simulation models and project selection procedures.

Mark Radka, Energy Programme Coordinator, UNEP-Paris, noted the role of GEF and UNEP implementing agencies in establishing renewable energy strategies. He indicated the core concept of the PV-Hydro study was framed by the IFC/World Bank based on the CEPALCO project and noted the larger interest lies in project replicability.  

THE TALK AROUND THE WORLD

A late afternoon plenary session was convened around the theme “A talk around the world,” reuniting Global Dialogue regional planning partners from Asia, Africa and Latin America. The discussion revolved around personal and success stories as well as examples of resource scarcity, and was illustrated by mini-documentaries produced by the regional partners to exemplify local initiatives.

The panelists were: Lawrence Surendra, SEI Senior Advisor, for India; Margarita Marino de Botero, Green College, for Columbia; Francisco Malta, Earth Council, for Costa Rica; Jerry Gotora, CAMPFIRE, for Zimbabwe; Lovemore Sola, Southern Africa Research and Documentation Centre, also for Zimbabwe; and Jürgen Bertram for Asia. Panelists were invited to present work done by their organization.

 


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