Here is the resolution from the International Solar Energy Society (ISES) congress that I was at last week. Department of Energy, take note... 100% Renewables by 2050. Frank
http://public.ises.org/news/SWCResolution.pdf
ISES Solar World Congress 2009
Johannesburg, South Africa, 11-14 October 2009
Resolution
The ISES Solar World Congress 2009 hosted by the Sustainable Energy
Society of Southern Africa in Johannesburg, South Africa, attended by
participants from all over the world resolves as follows:
The global target of 100 % renewable energies is both attainable and
necessary by the middle of the current century. This is motivated on
grounds of ecological, economic and social sustainability.
The unacceptable backlog in energy supply in the third world countries
can only be covered cost effectively and in time by the use of renewable
energies. Especially the industrialised countries have to increase their
efforts in transitioning to renewable energies.
The world's governments are called upon to implement without further
delay policies that have been proven internationally to be the most
effective and efficient in the rapid transition to a renewable energy
world, giving priority to renewable energy and refraining from any kind
of caps that may slow down renewable energy deployment.
As a guiding principle, local and rural communities and people should be
actively involved and benefit directly from renewable energies.
Governments should especially encourage and support community power
projects and distributed generation as well as investment in renewable
energy manufacturing facilities in order to foster the local creation of
jobs.
The Congress applauds the first steps taken by the South African
Government in introducing the renewable energy feed-in tariff. The
Congress requests government to urgently address concerns expressed by
the public and by potential investors about aspects of REFIT policy.
These include transparency, certainty, removal of contradictions between
legislation and regulations governing the REFIT and providing a roadmap
with clear commitments and timelines to its implementation.
The introduction of a Green Energy Act is strongly recommended as
crucial to providing an overarching and comprehensive framework for
renewable energy uptake so that in the near future the necessary steps
will be taken to attract local as well as international investors.
The Congress strongly recommends the world's governments to establish an
obligation to use renewable energy for water heating as well as space
heating and cooling in residential, industrial, commercial and public
sector buildings.
On the international level, the introduction of a global feed-in tariff
system is recommended as a primary instrument to foster international
technology transfer and finance scaling up of renewables, especially in
the third world. Such a global feed-in tariff has the unique potential
of overcoming the blockage in the current climate change negotiations.
For offgrid and non-electrical systems, further intelligent financing
mechanisms such as large-scaled microcredit and soft loan programmes
should be applied. All aspects of capacity building for renewable
energy, including resource assessment, have to be given priority in
education as well as in research and development. This is ineluctable in
order to create awareness and knowledge of the true and full potential
and vast variety of renewable energies as well as the true threats of
fossil and nuclear energies.
The Congress welcomes and endorses the strong support and the
cooperation of all the renewable energy technologies through the
International Renewable Energy Alliance.
The Congress is delighted by the recent establishment of the
International Renewable Energy Agency Irena and urges all renewable
energy proponents worldwide as well as the world's governments to give
full support to the establishment process in order to make sure that
IRENA can realise its leadership role on our way to a renewable energy
world.
Johannesburg, 14 October 2009
