NEWS RELEASE United Nations New York, 2001-04-16

Tools for Clean Energy Implementation

Since the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in 1992 at Rio de Janeiro, progress towards sustainable, efficient energy systems was much too slow to reduce global warming, health hazards and biosphere deterioration. Opposition by special interest group delayed the progress at all fronts. To overcome this procrastination, at the plenary session on the opening day of the 9th Session of the Commission for Sustainable Development (CSD9) in New York, following measures were proposed to curb damaging energy emissions and risks:

1. Global Energy Charter by the World Sustainable Energy Coalition

The “Global Energy Charter for Sustainable Energy Development” was released today in an updated version. The Global Energy Charter emerged originally at the 1st World Clean Energy Conference as an answer to the stalemated 2nd Climate Conference in Geneva - where George Bush sr. was called “Climate Criminal” - to be proclaimed at UNCED in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. It was revised at the Millennium CLEAN ENERGY 2000 Conference, Geneva, for the CSD 9 session (10 to 27 April 2001).

Gustav R. Grob, President of CMDC, Geneva (Cercle mondial du consensus), the parent NGO of the World Sustainable Energy Coalition (WSEC) and the co-author of the Global Energy Charter, Dean Emeritus Richard L. Ottinger, former US Congressman and House Energy Committee Chairman, pointed out, that since Rio, several governments and NGOs have already adopted most principles of the Global Energy Charter for their energy policy; countries like Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Switzerland passed carbon emission acts, issued energy efficiency rules, promote renewable energy and conduct public awareness programs. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Automobile Federation (FIA), the International Tourist Association (AIT) and the International Association for Hydrogen Energy (IAHE) have also adopted the Charter.

However, much more action is needed by industrialized and developing countries for making the Charter fully effective to resolve the impasse with the Kyoto Climate Protocol, and to implement Agenda 21’s aims more speedily for putting the Earth’s biosphere and climate back into balance.

2. International Standards for Clean, Efficient Energy Systems

“Mandatory international standards are the key to achieving sustainable development”, stated G.R. Grob, co-founder of the International Standards Organization’s (ISO) Committees on Technical Energy Systems and Hydrogen, “without proper standards the clean energy age cannot succeed”.

Such standards are already in place for the safe fueling of hydrogen cars, environmental management and for the analysis and comparison of energy systems, including their external cost; standards are under preparation for fuel cells by IEC and for an energy statistics & planning methodology, helping the change from polluting, risky energy resources to clean, sustainable ones.

These implementation tools and means were previously discussed at the CLEAN ENERGY 2000 Conference, Geneva, including the financing of the sustainable energy age, which will require a shift from hazardous energy types to clean, sustainable systems. It is estimated that some 1000 billion USD per year will be needed - a colossal task comparable to the world defense budgets; the actual investments into non-renewable energy installations are also of about the same order of magnitude.