Financing the right goals, deciding on the right financing

When it can happen that Japan is financing coal plants in India and Bangladesh with money earmarked for fighting climate change, it is hard to underestimate the importance of policy coherence.
By: CEEweb
 
BUDAPEST, Hungary - April 7, 2015 - PRLog -- The EU needs to step up its efforts on this, when it comes to the upcoming talks on the Energy Union, the climate commitment at the Paris summit and the new sustainable development goals within the UN.

The European Council in March made the first steps towards an Energy Union, with much emphasis laid on energy security and external gas supplies. However, this was not an ambitious outcome in the light of the joint letter of 22 business leaders (http://www.cisl.cam.ac.uk/business-action/low-carbon-transformation/clg/about/pdfs/March%20Council%20-%20Energy%20Union%20Letter.pdf) urging member states to support the Commission's package, which "shows that Europe is serious about securing and decarbonising Europe's energy supplies." The companies, which include Philips, Alstom and EDF add that it could even be strengthened "so that it ensures new flows of finance to low-carbon infrastructure and reducing energy use." The Energy Union is far too important to let go the opportunities for reducing European energy dependence, spearhead the EU’s role in innovative technologies on efficiency and renewables and fight against climate change.

When speaking about energy the Paris summit on climate change in December will be clearly a landmark event, which will determine climate and energy policies for the coming decades and shape the global energy market. World leaders cannot afford missing the opportunity to curb climate change and help their companies and citizens adapt to the changing conditions at the same time.

But the EU will not only make decisions on the Energy Union and climate agreement this year. The UN General Assembly will adopt the Sustainable Development Goals in September, and the proposal includes targets on access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all and on sustainable consumption and production. Realising these targets is mutually dependent, where the amount of energy used and the pressure it makes on environment shall be within the limits of planetary boundaries. But these targets are not only important for environmental reasons: the challenge of poverty and global inequalities, the desire for green economy based on innovative technologies shall be tackled in the same holistic framework – where the access to resources is fair and the sharing of benefits is equitable.

In order to advocate for coherent and powerful policies CEEweb for Biodiversity and Glopolis together with their NGO partners launched a European campaign. In their view the cornerstones of future energy policy shall be based on renewable energy development, which shall be combined with energy efficiency leading to energy savings and the development of interconnected smart infrastructure and smart technologies.

Klára Hajdu, senior policy officer of CEEweb emphasises that “Coherent policies are inevitable if we want to tackle the global problems of the 21st century. If we search for separate solutions for separately tackled problems, the result will be just even bigger mess than today. Holistic policies, such as an energy entitlement scheme accompanied by a revolving fund for financing innovation and a green market for certified products and services, can yield multiple benefits at the same time.”

Petr Patočka, head of Climate and Energy programme of Glopolis said “The year 2015 is a very important milestone for the development of the energy sector on global and European level. A new climate agreement is to be adopted at the end of 2015 and the European Energy Union will be taking a shape. In September universal sustainable development goals will be adopted. It is very important that the EU holds in all these processes a coherent and ambitious position, which will lead to the development of a low carbon economy and ensure the sustainable management of natural resources.”

More information:

The European campaign “Stop-mad-mining” is launched on 27 March in collaboration with 13 civil organisations. Its main aim is to promote sustainable and globally just production and consumption of raw materials with the support of the public, companies and politicians, and in particular to reduce energy resource use and phase out fossil and nuclear energy.  Further information: www.stop-mad-mining.org

CEEweb for Biodiversity is a network of NGOs working in Central and Eastern Europe with the aim of tackling the root causes of biodiversity loss. They are the co-founders of the European Resource Cap Coalition, which among others calls for an energy entitlement scheme (http://www.ceeweb.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/non_rene...) to reduce and ultimately phase out non-renewable energy use, boost green technologies and ensure sustainable financing for fighting climate change. Read more at: www.ceeweb.org/rcc

Founded in 2004, Glopolis is an independent think-tank dedicated to creating a more responsible economy, smarter energy policies and stable food markets.

Contact: Klára Hajdu, CEEweb +36-20-3889-437

Contact: Petr Patočka, Glopolis, +420-603-155-535

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