By Hélène Connor-Lajambe
The United Nations and other world agencies are geographically global
in scope, but seldom seem able to work together on the same issue,
however crucial it is, even when deep misery or armed conflicts ensue.
Climate change is the best example of the silo mentality within our
highest institutions and most of our societies. It is only lately, for
instance, that the World Bank has started to reconsider its funding of
coal plants, and the International Energy Agency is at last making
waves as it promotes energy efficiency while other agencies are still
pushing the search for more oil reserves.
Climate destabilisation has been acknowledged as the single most
crucial concern threatening life as we know it. Nevertheless, UNFCCC
negotiations still fail to give precedence to the main countries
impacted by drastic changes in climate, and give the floor to those
responsible for creating the damage.
Too often the search for energy has been associated with land
grabbing, assassinations, kidnappings and other acts of violence to
secure access to stocks of fossil-fuel resources. Many of the
recurrent conflicts in the Middle East are directly or indirectly
linked to the ownership of oil-rich lands, and the costs in terms of
money and human lives are huge.
These costs have never been counted in the price users pay for their
energy – an omission that adds to the distortions already present in
the energy market, in the form of various subsidies for instance, and
which favours an overuse of energy.
But they are tallied on another tab. One way or another, society has
to pay the price, more often than not perpetuating an endless cycle of
poverty. Procuring energy does not need to be so brutal. Agencies
working in isolation to repair the damage will never be up to the
task. So let us try to be sensible and face the problem squarely.
Genuine Progress Indicator
Energy is a strategic tool, not an end in itself. What counts is not
the sheer quantity of energy, but rather its efficiency at rendering
services. Energy services are very diverse and are geared to improving
human welfare. The latter, when measured not in terms of the
traditional and inadequate Gross Domestic Product (GDP) but rather in
terms of the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), which accounts for
social factors and environmental costs, peaked around 1978 and has
been declining since. A recent study has shown that 1978 was also the
year in which our ecological footprint, our demand on the earth’s
ecosystem, began exceeding its capacity to produce resources and
absorb waste.
For the past thirty years we have been simultaneously increasing our
use of energy and our ecological debt. The financial and other costs
of doing so are reflected in the present state of both the environment
and the economy. Resource wars and other power struggles continue
unabated in several regions of the world. Yet despite the disasters
engendered, some still want more access to fossil-fuel derived energy
and are ready to kill for it, unleashing the demons of terrorism in
their wake.
Over the years, however, we have learned that our activities and our
happiness are often limited not so much by a lack of energy but rather
by the impacts of the energy sector itself.
The need for energy security has to date been misunderstood by many
analysts to mean the need to increase supply at all costs. But
grabbing more resources is not the way. On the contrary, such an
approach increases unacceptable risks at incalculable costs. Moreover,
it is unethical, considering that it is often foreign companies that
develop energy resources in countries where the population has not
been consulted and may not even be aware of what is going on.
More energy is not the way to trigger progress or improve global human
welfare. Slowly but surely, we must phase out energy sources such as
fossil and radioactive fuels, which irreversibly damage the
environment and humankind’s health and genetic pool.
‘Energetician’
Renewable energy provides a freedom – within the strict framework set
by the laws of nature. The new ‘energetician’ must be smart and have
an understanding of the world that goes beyond mechanics. He or she
deals with living entities and works for human beings. This can be
more complex than digging for black stones or extracting liquid matter
from the soil.
Certainly these underground substances have promoted part of mankind
into a very comfortable material world, but this benefit should not
have remained unshared. Renewable energy can be energy for all since
it is the property of none. So let us drop the aggressive search for
fossil fuels and turn to the energy present in our own backyard, which
we can enjoy without harming others.
Governments and intergovernmental agencies should join the grassroots
‘yes in my backyard’ (YIMBY) movement in the making, which asserts
that our energy systems can bring local benefits and promote peace
without frontiers.
This YIMBY new wave has to succeed and we will unwittingly get more
than we bargained for: better energy policies for one, and
additionally, a lasting commitment to a world with fewer resource
conflicts, particularly in relation to energy. This could also
contribute to world peace; what a bonus!
Dr. Hélène Connor-Lajambe, former OECD administrator, is the founder
and honorary president of HELIO International. Founded in 1997, HELIO
is an independent, non-profit international think-tank and network of
leading energy analysts who identify, assess, measure and publicise
the contribution of energy systems and policies to sustainable and
equitable development. This article is taken from Stakeholder Forum’s
magazine Outreach which took it from Issue 3/2013 of ‘Security
Community’, the magazine of the Organisation for Security Community in
Europe (OSCE). – Eurasia Review
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