NUCLEAR IS NOT A MEMBER

Should renewable energy include nuclear? The US, China, and dozens of other countries are meeting today in Egypt to chart the course of a new international agency aimed at promoting renewable energy.
Lily Riahi and Lisa Desai, June 29, 2009 (Christian Science Monitor)
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Ms. Hélène Pelosse becomes Interim Director-General/New Home of IRENA
June 29, 2009 (IRENA)

SUMMARY
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) officially launches July 1. 136 signatory countries, including the U.S., will use IRENA guidance on how to transition to New Energy.

China is expected to add itself as an IRENA signatory nation in the near future.

At the second session of its Preparatory Commission in Sharm El Shaikh, Egypt, Ms. Hélène Pelosse was named the first Interim Director-General of IRENA.

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She is currently Deputy Head of Staff for international affairs in the Private Office of the French Minister for Ecology, Energy, Sustainable Development, and Town and Country Planning. She managed Climate and Energy negotiations with the EU for France, with a particular focus on New Energy. She headed the design of France’s Renewable Energy Plan. She participated in several international climate negotiations and worked intimately with international organisations (ex: IEA, UNEP and UNDP) on energy issues.

The Preparatory Commission also chose Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), as its interim headquarters city.

Among the controversial issues at the top of IRENA’s agenda is the concern that the international nuclear energy industry will attempt to impose itself as a New Energy solution.

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New Energy advocates in IRENA are concerned that France’s nuclear energy establishment has a close relationship with the UAE. They fear that Pelosse’s selection will leave IRENA "nuclear tainted" and strengthen the French nuclear energy industry’s attempt to define itself as a “renewable” energy. France's nuclear establishment claims this on the grounds that nuclear energy electricity generation is free of greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs).

The European Union (EU) rejected the French nuclear energy industry’s attempt to so classify itself.

France continues to advocate powering the Mediterranean region with its "low-carbon technology."

The IRENA pushback against the nuclear industry also comes in response to nuclear power cooperation agreements between the UAE, IRENA’s newly-named headquarters nation, and the U.S., Japan, Britain, and France.

Not yet out of its interim phase, IRENA has run headlong into one of the most challenging controversies at the heart of the energy world. How the world’s diplomats manage it may be a preview of the crucial December summit in Copenhagen on climate change.

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COMMENTARY
France obtains almost 80% of its electricity from nuclear energy. Its industry is one of the biggest nuclear technology and nuclear expertise sellers in the world. In 2008 and 2009, French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed multibillion-dollar nuclear deals with the UAE, Qatar, Algeria, Libya, and Morocco.

France lags behind the rest of its European neighbors in the development of installed wind power and solar energy capacities. Insiders blame the French nuclear energy establishment for blocking New Energy development.

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As IRENA and EU members point out, nuclear energy cannot be considered “renewable” because it relies on a mined, unreplenishable fuel (uranium) and because it produces waste. These are characteristics of the Old Energies (coal, oil, natural gas). The New Energies use fuels that are limitless (sun, wind, waves) or replenishable (crops) and generally produce no more waste, such as GhGs or spent radioactive substances, than they consume to generate energy.

IRENA’s biggest backers say the relationship its leadership is crafting with the UAE is designed to support reliance on nuclear energy and to secure UAE oil supplies, things that contradict the founding purpose of the new organization created to bring to life an international New Energy economy.

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The UAE is also, however, the home of Masdar, probably the most ambitious New Energy undertaking ever conceived. Masdar will be, when complete, a zero-carbon city fueled entirely by New Energy and designed to maximize efficiency without compromising a modern lifestyle. The UAE also aims to obtain 7% of its total power from New Energy but says its ability to survive in its desert environment depends on obtaining electricity generated by nuclear energy as well.

Many founders wanted IRENA to be headquartered in Germany or Denmark, nations that have banned nuclear energy and moved dramatically to New Energy. Germany, where solar energy pioneer Dr. Hermann Scheer started the movement to establish IRENA in the 1990s, leads the world in the development of New Energy incentives. Its feed-in tariff has made it the world's leader in installed solar capacity. Denmark gets over 20% of its power from wind energy, a world standard.

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QUOTES
- Dr. Doerte Fouquet, Director, European Renewable Energy Federation: "Advocates of nuclear try to avoid these essential differences by linking these two forms of energy under the umbrella term 'low-carbon technology'…People forget that emitting zero CO2 is only one of the characteristics that defines a renewable source of energy."
- IIda Tetsunari, Japanese Minister of Environment advisor and executive director, Institute for Sustainable Energy Policies: "Their support for Abu Dhabi as IRENA's headquarters is linked to these agreements and a secure supply of oil…"

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- Dr. Eric Martinot, New Energy energy market expert, former World Bank energy officer: "Are the original goals of IRENA being co-opted so that renewables get pushed aside by a nuclear agenda – 'sprinkling some renewables on top of our nuclear power'?"
- Hermann Scheer, solar pioneer, IRENA founder and member of the German Parliament: "Since the 1970s, scientists have shown that renewable energy can satisfy the energy needs of the entire world, but these studies get systematically ignored. IRENA will change this…This was the only way to avoid the veto power of countries with strong nuclear or fossil interests, who have stopped IRENA in the past…IRENA could be designed as a lame duck or it could promote renewable energy acceleration everywhere. This is the case for decision."