A global voice

The WCRE is a voice showing all the benefits of Renewable Energy for the quality of people’s life, for protecting the climate, renewing industries, avoiding external costs and saving long-term costs, and keeping peace. It is a voice that challenges governments and international organisations to set their priorities finally on Renewable Energy and calls for the replacement of conventional energies; a voice that helps to translate the lip service often paid to Renewable Energy into powerful and comprehensive practice; a voice for a political “grand strategy” for Renewable Energy.

Negotiations at international-level conferences demonstrated how much such a voice has been lacking so far: At these Conferences, Renewable Energy as the most important step towards the conservation of the global climate
did not play the part it deserved.

The WCRE aims at changing this situation. It does not talk about the economic burdens of climate protection but about the chances for the global economy and civilisation of the future offered by Renewable Energy. The WCRE focuses on convincing the public and global opinion of the potentials of Renewable Energy. It shows – without paying any tactical heed – the undesirable developments, the dangers, hidden costs and the damage to civilisation, caused by conventional energy supply – it motivates and encourages governments and enterprises to develop strategies for Renewable Energy.

The conventional energy economy is based on the assumption that we cannot exist without fossil and nuclear energy – in spite of the fact that this assumption is proven to be wrong. It operates within the established structures of energy supply. The existing energy economy cannot be neutral towards all energy sources. It was developed and designed to serve today’s dominant energy supply system. It was adapted to the specific flow of fossil and nuclear energies with its infrastructures, energy technologies and business organisations, from their sources at comparatively few sites of mining and extraction to the consumer everywhere in the world. Inevitably, the places where energy is consumed are disconnected from those where it is generated. The consequence was the development of long energy chains, every single link of them depending on the other ones. This energy chain shackles the actors of the energy economy.

Renewable Energies require different structures, as their energy flow is completely different from the conventional one. Renewables are available in every corner of the globe. They have, however, a lower energy density than fossil and nuclear energy. As natural energy supply – solar radiation, solar heat, water, wind, and biomass – varies depending on the site of production, there will be different focuses and forms of use on our globe, one region differing from the other. Numerous studies and reality have already shown that it is feasible to coordinate the energy demand with the regional supply of renewable energy. The sites where energy is consumed may in the end become identical again with those where energy is generated.

Ecological industrialisation
Economic winners of this development are the producers and users of numerous and manifold techniques for conversion and use of Renewable Energies – in the field of electro technology, micro­electronics, building and maintenance, agriculture and agro technology, engineering, glass technology, and energy storage technology. Renewable Energies present us with the unique chance for an ecological industrialisation, for a vital new agricultural and forestry economy, and an independent as well as a sustainable energy supply. Instead of few large structures of energy provision, they need many small complementary elements. They can be used in a flexible way, since any installed module can work separately. Thus, they can be introduced quickly, as they do not need a long time for construction. In summary: they need different conditions from those of the conventional energy economy – different technologies, different forms of use, different economic supporters, different political frameworks, and different education and training.

It is an absurd situation that Renewable Energies – by far the largest, most sustainable, and most ecological energy potential at humankind’s disposal – are underestimated, whereas the nuclear and fossil energy potentials are overestimated, in spite of their limited availability and their noxious impacts on the environment. This absurdity can only be surmounted by a globally operating, independent organisation – free of the stakes of the conventional energy economy.

That is why the WCRE has been advocating the establishment of an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) for years. In 2001, the WCRE organised an “International Impulse Conference for the Creation of the IRENA”. In its coalition agreement, dating from 2005, the German Federal Government has adopted the IRENA initiative as one of its policy projects. Consultations with more than 60 selected countries worldwide in 2007, together with three preparatory conferences in 2008, clearly confirmed that a great number of countries recognise the need to establish IRENA and aim at a swift founding process to ensure operability of the agency as early as possible. The Founding Conference will be held in January 2009.

IRENA’s main objective will be to foster and promote the large∞scale adoption of renewable energy worldwide. This overall objective can be broken down into a number of concrete targets:

• Improved regulatory frameworks for renewable energy through enhanced policy    advice;
• Improvements in the transfer of renewable
energy technology;
• Progress and improvements on renewable
energy skills and know-how;
• A scientifically sound information basis
through applied policy research;
• And better financing of renewable energy.

IRENA will thus help to reduce the pressure on finite energy sources, provide a sound basis for meeting future energy demand, stabilise energy prices, improve access to energy particularly for the world’s poorest, combat climate change and increase energy security. At the same time, it will contribute to economic growth and job creation. Due to the WCRE’s long-time advocacy, the foundation of IRENA is close at hand.