Energy for all

UNESCO Courier, Feb, 1997 by Federico Mayor Zaragoza

Such a system is an important facet of the changes we must make in order to reduce current asymmetries in the sharing of resources. These asymmetries, which are morally unacceptable, generate frustration and violence and threaten world peace and security at the dawn of a new millennium.

It is estimated that 2.4 billion people today have no regular access to electricity. The lack of a reliable means of heating and lighting the homes, clinics and schools of some 40 per cent of the world's population - living mainly in rural or remote areas of the developing world - acts as a significant brake on the development process. In such areas, people - more often than not women and children - are obliged to make long journeys to find drinking water and fuelwood.

Renewable energy electrification would help meet the basic needs of isolated populations in terms of heat, light, the pumping and purification of freshwater, educational opportunities, basic communications, medical care, income-generating rural activities and improved agricultural methods and techniques - in short, all those facilities we think of as necessary for a healthy, developing community.

Leaders of the world's nations who met at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro in June 1992 recognized the risk of rapid climate change caused by gas emissions (some of them with clear greenhouse impact) and prepared a Convention designed to stabilize the earth's climate. The Conference laid stress on the development of environmentally sound energy systems, particularly new and renewable sources of energy, to the benefit of industrialized and developing countries alike.

Industrialized countries can profit from the incorporation of renewable energies into their national energy programmes. Denmark, for example, today produces 3.5 per cent of its electricity from wind, at a cost that is competitive with traditional fossil fuels.

Renewable energy sources

The widespread use of renewable energy sources as part of a global energy system requires increased knowledge of the various technologies and their adaptation to different contexts and fields of application. The importance of further research, education and training of engineers and technicians cannot be over-emphasized. The availability of unrestricted information and its communication to decision-makers and the public at large will serve to influence opinion and the all-important energy consumption patterns of the population.

Only if we enhance the quality of life in rural areas shall we achieve our target of reaching those who are excluded from the benefits of progress. Only then will population growth rates and the consequent emigration flows decrease. The three main - interdependent - dimensions of this initiative are therefore social, educational and environmental. Here the media have a major role to play.

Public awareness and participation are the keys to success, as in so many other fields. The regional consultations that preceded the World Solar Summit held in Harare (Zimbabwe) in September 1996 identified education, training and public understanding in the field of renewable energy as a strategic priority.

The Solar Summit

The World Solar Summit marked the start of a ten-year plan of almost unprecedented international and national action and co-operation. The World Solar Programme 1996-2005, which comprises some 300 renewable energy projects, is a major international initiative with which UNESCO is pleased to be associated. Its execution requires the commitment of national authorities, the relevant organizations of the United Nations system, multilateral and regional development banks, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations, academic and research institutions, and the private sector.

We now know that integration - at the sub-regional or regional levels - will never happen if it is only based on economic interest. It is clear that money divides if it is the only ingredient of alliances. Integration is achieved with common values, with the democratic ideals of justice, freedom, equality and solidarity enshrined in UNESCO's Constitution. There can be no sustainable peace without development; there can be no sustainable development without a social context governed by democratic principles; there can be no sustainable development without a human face.

We have too often forgotten the human face. We have forgotten that science and technology are there to mitigate human suffering. A system based on equality collapsed in 1989 because it had forgotten freedom. A system based on freedom can also fail if it forgets equality. And neither system takes into account fraternity. We must tirelessly build peace in the minds of men through our everyday conduct, which is the supreme expression of our culture. Let us exercise our responsibilities and make the indispensable and urgent transformations that human dignity demands. In a word, let us create a culture of peace.