UN SEES NEW ENERGY & ‘NEGAWATTS’ AS DEVELOPMENT KEYS

Secretary-General’s Advisory Group Report ‘Real Action Plan’ to Bring Clean Energy to Poor, Scale Up Efforts to Increase Energy Efficiency
28 April 2010 (United Nations Department of Public Information)

THE POINT
With oil despoiling the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast and coal mines caving in from China to West Virginia, it seems time for some good news so here it is: The entire world is clearly and unequivocally aware of the urgent need for negawatts. Negawatts are the ones that don’t get consumed, the energy that is conserved when efficiency is put to work. It is a measure of electricity that is not generated. Negawatts are the cheapest New Energy money can buy.

There has not been a report on New Energy in months which has not recommended the aggressive Energy Efficiency targets alongside New Energy goals, targets and standards. To see how widespread the growing awareness of Energy Efficiency's importance is, scroll down the page and surf through the back posts in the right column to study the 3-to-4 reports per week this page assesses.

There is no better proof of the point than Energy for a Sustainable Future, from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change. To help turn back global climate change and meet the U.N.’s Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to end poverty, the report calls for the delivery of New Energy to the world’s 2 billion poorest people who are off-grid and out of the global economy. Collectively, they so far use little of the world’s energy. The report calls not only for delivering New Energy to them to bring them into the world's economic community but also for helping them become much more efficient in their use of it.

Development out of poverty is a virtually insurmountable ideal for the billions of people in the world who have no access to reliable, affordable energy services. The report therefore calls for universal basic access to modern energy services by 2030, with substantial provisions to use it efficiently so that global energy intensity falls 2.5% per year – twice as fast as it has fallen in recent years – for an overall 40% drop in the units of energy used per GDP dollar worldwide.

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It is only with such an emphasis on efficiency that vital energy can be delivered to the billions who need it without adding mega-amounts of the greenhouse gas emissions (GhGs) that aggravate global climate change to an already worsening situation. With such an emphasis Energy Efficiency, the needed energy could be delivered with only a 1.3% increase in GhGs.

The best part is that negawatts cost probably no more than one-third what the cheapest megawatts cost. This is a crucial factor because the report’s central message is that the community of nations MUST transform the world’s energy system, no matter the cost. Delivering enough New Energy for the transformation will be expensive and require a concerted public and private financing effort with significant commitments from national Governments and the international community.

Spending on negawatts returns $2-to-$3 for every $1 spent, earning money that can subsequently be spent on New Energy infrastructure.

The UN study reports that Brazil, China, and Viet Nam have shown it is possible to rapidly expand energy access and China, Denmark, Japan, Sweden and California have dramatically improved their Energy Efficiency. An array of policy options are identified that should be selectively applied to high-, middle- and low-income nations.

Children of the post-World War II "baby-boom" generation often prayed for "world peace and the end of poverty." Despite the best efforts of the United Nations, born in the same post-World War II boom, the children of the current "baby-boom," now coming into adolescence and early adulthood, grew up praying for the same things. Perhaps the UN has finally discovered the "efficient" way to give those prayers "new energy."

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THE DETAILS
Part 1, The Importance of Energy:
Energy is central to economic, environmental and development issues. Development and the elimination of poverty can come only where there are efficient, affordable and reliable energy services. Affordable and reliable energy is also key to economic productivity, competitiveness and growth. Without reliable energy services, hospitals, health clinics and schools cannot serve, clean water and sanitation are constrained and food supplies cannot be safe or secure.

The energy-poor: ~3 billion people worldwide can only get cooking and heating from biomass; ~1.5 billion have no electricity; another ~1 billion have only unreliable electricity. Cooking and heating smoke in badly ventilated buildings has severe health consequences including lung and heart disease. Women and girls in the developing world are disproportionately affected. New Energy can turn around the lives of billions of the world’s poorest.

Countries with inadequate energy lose up to 1%-to-2% of growth per year.

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The world’s energy system – supply, transformation, delivery and use – is 60% of GhG-generation. It is also unsustainable and ruinous to the environment, causing urban air pollution and land and water acidification.

First long-term goal to counteract the predicted doubling in world population through 2030: Cutting carbon intensity (units of carbon emitted per unit of energy consumed). To achieve the first goal, fossil fuel use must be cut with increased use of emissions-free New Energy and negawatts (Energy Efficiency).

Part 2, The Imperative to Transform National Energy Systems
The report’s central message: The community of nations MUST transform the world’s energy system. A joint public and private effort will be needed.

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Low-, middle and high-income countries must change:
(1) Low-income countries must meet the needs of their several billion energy-poor people who live by burning biomass and suffer for doing so. They must meet those needs in a cost-effective, sustainable, affordable and efficient (low-GhG) manner.
(2) Middle-income countries must progressively decouple growth from energy consumption with Energy Efficiency implementation and cut GhGs with New Energy deployment.
(3) High-income countries have unique challenges. They must transition to a New Energy economy by replacing Old Energy infrastructure with greater New Energy and Energy Efficiency capacity.

Synergies can come from cooperation on policies and regulations, capacity development, technical standards, best available technologies, financing and implementation approaches, and more coordinated, scaled-up research and development.

The two areas of immediately actionable opportunity: Energy Access and Energy Efficiency.

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Part 3, Two Key Goals (Ensuring Universal Energy Access and Reducing Global Energy Intensity by 2030)

The community of nations should aim to bring the 2-to-3 billion energy-poor people reliable, affordable, sustainable and low-GhG modern energy services by 2030.

Universal access will facilitate participation in the world economy and generate new wealth while meeting the Millenium Development Goal (MDG) of ending poverty.

High-income countries can catalyze financing. Middle-income countries can share technological expertise and best-practices. Low-income countries can create a nurturing institutional, regulatory and policy environment for private sector investment.

A reduction of energy intensity by 2.5% per year would make the world 40% less energy intense by 2030. The means are: (1) policies, (2) market-based mechanisms, (3) business models, (4) investment tools and (5) regulations that streamline energy use.

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These will lead to international technical standards for energy-intense products and equipment and the transfer of experience and good practices to drive private capital flows into Energy Efficiency investments.

There are also important synergies between these two goals. Accelerating access to modern energy services will reduce all the harms of biomass-burning and improve energy intensity. This will grow infrastructure and drive capital investment in accelerating access to modern energy services.

This will also grow economies of scale for Energy Efficient appliances and equipment which will make modern energy services more affordable, accelerating access to modern energy services.

The IEA’s recommended 100 kW-hrs per person per year, even delivered by a fossil fuel-dominated generation mix, will only increase GhGs ~1.3%. Better results can come from more Energy Efficiency and New Energy or even a shift from coal to natural gas.

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Part 4, Recommended Actions to Achieve the Goals of Energy Access and Energy Efficiency.

(1) Launch an “Energy for Sustainable Development” global campaign.

Add energy to the Millenium Development Goals in 2010 along with climate change, biodiversity, desertification, food security, and sustainable development.

(2) Get Energy Access and Energy Efficiency goals and national strategies from all the world’s countries with predictable, long-term policies.

Road Maps should define human and institutional capacities and and delivery mechanisms and should be different and specific for high-income countries, middle-income countries and low-income countries. All countries should work toward (a) international technical standards for energy-using products and equipment; (b) more R&D spending, and (c) market expansion for energy access and Energy Efficiency products.

(3) Innovative financial mechanisms for New Energy, Energy Efficiency and fighting climate change should be available to the entire community of nations.

Universal access to modern energy services by 2030 will cost an estimated $35-to-$40 billion per year. That will require ~$15 billion in grants for infrastructure in the least developed countries. It will also require $20-to-$25 billion in loans for governments and the private sector. Energy Efficiency will cost an estimated $30-to-$35 billion per year for low-income countries and $140-to-$170 billion per year for middle-income countries through 2030. The need for grants and loans is due to the high upfront costs of New Energy and Energy Efficiency. The amounts necessitate innovative financing to make capital available for cost-effective investments that could have slow returns. Innovative use of carbon markets could be key.

(4) Maximize private-sector participation.

Long-term, predictable policies and regulations will attract private capital in the forms of public-private partnerships (PPPs), innovative investment mechanisms, expanded local lending capabilities, financial return incentives and special incentives for off-grid deployment.

(5) Make “Energy for Sustainable Development” a top priority at the UN.

Add energy access and Energy Efficiency to UN programmes and projects, use UN resources to help governments form plans, policies and regulations that drive growth of local capacities, advance the use of all knowledge networks to accelerate the transfer of best practices, new technologies and information, track progress, generate dialogue and strengthen UN-Energy.

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QUOTES
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations: “Addressing these challenges is beyond the reach of governments alone. It will take the active engagement of all sectors of society: the private sector; local communities and civil society; international organizations and the world of academia and research. To that end, in 2009 I established a high-level Advisory Group on Energy and Climate Change…The Advisory Group has identified two priorities – improving energy access and strengthening energy efficiency – as key areas for enhanced effort and international cooperation. Expanding access to affordable, clean energy is critical for realizing the MDGs and enabling sustainable development across much of the globe. Improving energy efficiency is paramount if we are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It can also support market competitiveness and green innovation.”

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- Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General, United Nations: “…the decisions we make today on our energy future will have far-reaching consequences -- for climate change, for development, economic growth and global security. Providing clean, affordable energy for all is essential. It is a massive challenge, but -- as this report shows -- it can be done.”

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- From the report: “By 2030, there is an opportunity for the world to be well on its way to a fundamental transformation of its energy system, allowing developing countries to leapfrog current systems in order to achieve access to cleaner, sustainable, affordable and reliable energy services. This change will require major shifts in regulatory regimes in almost every economy; vast incremental infrastructure investments (likely to be more than $1 trillion annually); an accelerated development and deployment of multiple new energy technologies; and a fundamental behavioural shift in energy consumption. Major shifts in human and institutional capacity and governance will be required to make this happen. The transformation of energy systems will be uneven and, if poorly handled, has the potential to lead to a widening “energy gap” between advanced and least developed nations, and even to periodic energy security crises. But handled well – through a balanced framework of cooperation and competition – energy system transformation has the potential to be a source of sustainable wealth creation for the world’s growing population while reducing the strain on its resources and climate…”