| Sustainable Energy Agency |
by Gunnar Boye Olesen, OVE
As one of the results of UNCED, there ought to be established better international organizations dealing with the sustainable energy development.
Proposals
Most people working for a sustainable development agree that there is a lack of international institutions promoting a sustainable energy development. The question has been raised by a number of NGOs: the organizations behind the strategy "Sustainable energy collaboration, - towards a world strategy", Greenpeace, Eurosolar and others. Now also the UN advisory committee on renewable energy "UN Solar Group" has recommended a new international agency dealing with renewable energy.
To realize the establishment of better institutions, it is now up to the countries to promote the proposals. Hopefully one of the results of UNCED will be a recommendation to the UN General Assembly to set up a UN Sustainable energy organization, and the formation of an open preparation committee to make the more detailed proposal.
Issues
In many discussions among countries, institutional matters seem to overshadow the issues, that the institutions are dealing with. It is important to stress that it is much more important what issues, the sustainable energy organization is dealing with than whether itis a new agency, a strong coordinating unit or something else with sufficient resources.
The main issues concerning sustainable energy development, that need new international collaboration is:
easily accessible information systems;
support of capacity-building for development and implementation of sustainable energy technologies in developing and Eastern European countries;
support formulation of sustainable energy strategies in all countries;
assess the development of the energy sector in all countries;
supporting establishment of minimum efficiency standards
transfer of environmentally benign technology
prevention of "eco-dumping". where old wasteful technologies are exported from more developed to less developed countries
provide funds for investments in sustainable energy technologies
restructuring energy funding policies to give highest priority to sustainable energy technologies.