ENERGY 21

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.