Energy experts review 1981 Nairobi action plan

UN Chronicle, Dec, 1991

An intergovernmental group of experts has concluded that the Nairobi Programme of Action for the Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy is still valid, despite slow progress in realizing many of its goals.

New priorities should reflect concern for the environment, a subject not considered when the Plan was adopted at a global conference in Kenya in 1981. Also, other priorities should be reshuffled to reflect changes over the last decade in such areas as finance, economic growth and the state of development of energy technologies.

The experts urged promotion of mature, cost-effective technologies that are "environmentally benign". Some examples are: low- and moderate-temperature solar energy in domestic and industrial applications; large-scale electricity production using solar and wind technology; and programmes using fuelwood and charcoal.

The group, in its 10-year review and assessment of the global plan at a special meeting in New York from 26 to 30 August, considered progress reports on specific new and renewable sources of energy, which include solar, wind and geothermal energy, hydropower, ocean energy, biomass, tar sands and oil shale sources, as well as such traditional sources as fuelwood and charcoal, peat and draught animal power.

About 14 per cent of the world's total energy supply comes from these sources. While their use has increased in some countries, the rate of increase has failed to live up to expectations, the experts concluded.

Part of the reason for the slow progress was that the 1981 Programme was formulated in an era of high oil prices, which focused world attention on alternatives to fossil fuels. Since then, the situation has changed drastically, "with an unfavourable impact" on the Programme's implementation.

In effect, increased energy efficiency in the developed world, especially in the early 1980s, led to an oil glut and a sharp decline in oil prices. As a result, the search for energy alternatives lost momentum.

The group's report will be presented to the UN Committee on the Development and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy, at its sixth session in February 1992.