“There is no other nation that has done more concrete actions for sustainable development,” said Paula Dobriansky, the leader of the US delegation to the World Summit on Sustainable Development.
A signature project on the US list is the Clean Energy Initiative, a $43 million partnership with governments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), and international organisations to provide “access to affordable, reliable, clean, and efficient energy” to millions of people around the world.
Notably absent from the US proposal was a mention of renewable energy investments. Renewable energy has become a sticking point for the US at the World Summit negotiations. A group of countries led by the European Union has proposed boosting the world’s supply of renewables such as solar and wind power by 15% by 2010. The US has opposed such binding commitments, and asked that energy options be expanded to include nuclear and ‘clean coal’ power.
Going against “certain people in the [US] Administration”, a group of US Congressmen at the Summit suggested an alternative partnership for clean energy. A ‘Solar Venture Fund’ would remove $210 billion in global subsidies for fossil fuels, and invest $50 billion to drive down the global cost of solar technology and provide poor countries with renewable energy.
Kristin Casper of the Greenpeace youth delegation called the US planned partnership “very short term.” The clean energy initiative was a “cop out,” Casper said, noting that renewable energy investments in poor countries were needed to meet new demands, and “break the cycle of dirty energy” that rich countries had started.
“Clean energy could mean anything. Fossil fuels will be outdated in such a short time, we need renewables now.”
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