Commission on Sustainable Development
May 9th 2006 03:32
Category: No Category
Today, the themes of discussion for the Commission on Sustainable Development...
The hot themes this year are biomass and nuclear and "cleaner" petrol.
The problem with cleaner petrol, or refined petrol, is that it uses more energy in the refining process. i can't understand why goverments are diverting funds to make cleaner fossil fuels when they can use wind and solar. It is extremely sad that Australia is pursuing cleaner coals when we have the greatest potential for wind, solar, and sugar power - we just need to invest in the infrastructure which we lack.
Biomass energy, basically sugar cane powered electricity, and ethanol and hybrid powered cars, are of greatest interest, particularly with the rising price of oil (Brazil is the world leader with ethanol and hybrid cars actually gaining a greater domestic market share than petrol powered cars). Unfortunately the focus is on commercial biomass, with the sad fact that over 3 billion people in the world rely on primitive biomass for their energy needs which causes great health risks from respiratory disease and fire. While people usually tend to think of large cities with regards to air pollution, most people in the world still live in predominately rural areas and have huge problems with indoor air pollution and from crop burning. The task of collection, transfer and the cooking, of course are done by women which not only prevents them from pursuing education and income generating activities, or just free time but exposes them to respiratory disease, back and other joint pain, snake bites (in collection) and sexual assualt (which is also common during collection in remote areas).
What these people need is access to energy, and hence delegates from developing nations are vociferous in repeating that any discussion on energy must include access and industrial development.
As a delegate from WHO pointed out, on his plane here he could surf the net for an extra $20 whereas most people don't have $6 for cooking stoves that won't kill them.
The other hot topic for this year is nuclear power as the solution to climate change! This has been pushed by the US & the IAEA as the clean and safe and cost effective solution. This is bull. Nuclear power should never be considered as an option as it is inherently dangeors, it can be used for terrorism (which actually is the US argument against Iran's nuclear strategy inter alia), it actually uses coal generation to work (so it doesn't replace fossil fuels at all), it uses a lot of water, it uses energy for extraction of raw materials and energy in their transport to the plant (emissions!) and it's NOT cost effective. Nuclear power generators rely on government subsidies - they have huge set up costs etc. Everyone knows that nuclear power cannot survive in a liberal market, so why is the US, which is pushing liberalisation & privitisation of energy markets, pushing nuclear power? Further, nuclear power doesn't work in heat, so it's ridiculous to see it as a solution to global warming.....what could anyone gain from nuclear power? It's grid based, it's centralised.
The best solution to world's energy needs, as voiced by NGOs at this commission, particularly Greenpeace (when represeting this major group) is decentralised renewable energy! It's democratic and sustainable.
Most of the world's energy consumption is from G8 nations. It seems reasonable and effective to decrease energy consumption - in attending the EC mission's meeting in which they put their thinking caps on & said that as the most advanced area in the world they should advance policies in carbon decrease, including in decreasing consumption - I noticed that the mineral water and the orange juice dispersed was also dispersed with plastic cups. Is is just me, or did something go wrong here?
As for lib/priv of energy markets, this tends to isolate the poor and remote communites. The Bolivian workers shared their example, when representing the TU/wks major group, that public resistance to foreign corporate ownership of their water and energy resources has led to renegotiation of contracts with the corporations to the benefit of the people with funds going to education and public services. Some good news.
The hot themes this year are biomass and nuclear and "cleaner" petrol.
The problem with cleaner petrol, or refined petrol, is that it uses more energy in the refining process. i can't understand why goverments are diverting funds to make cleaner fossil fuels when they can use wind and solar. It is extremely sad that Australia is pursuing cleaner coals when we have the greatest potential for wind, solar, and sugar power - we just need to invest in the infrastructure which we lack.
Biomass energy, basically sugar cane powered electricity, and ethanol and hybrid powered cars, are of greatest interest, particularly with the rising price of oil (Brazil is the world leader with ethanol and hybrid cars actually gaining a greater domestic market share than petrol powered cars). Unfortunately the focus is on commercial biomass, with the sad fact that over 3 billion people in the world rely on primitive biomass for their energy needs which causes great health risks from respiratory disease and fire. While people usually tend to think of large cities with regards to air pollution, most people in the world still live in predominately rural areas and have huge problems with indoor air pollution and from crop burning. The task of collection, transfer and the cooking, of course are done by women which not only prevents them from pursuing education and income generating activities, or just free time but exposes them to respiratory disease, back and other joint pain, snake bites (in collection) and sexual assualt (which is also common during collection in remote areas).
What these people need is access to energy, and hence delegates from developing nations are vociferous in repeating that any discussion on energy must include access and industrial development.
As a delegate from WHO pointed out, on his plane here he could surf the net for an extra $20 whereas most people don't have $6 for cooking stoves that won't kill them.
The other hot topic for this year is nuclear power as the solution to climate change! This has been pushed by the US & the IAEA as the clean and safe and cost effective solution. This is bull. Nuclear power should never be considered as an option as it is inherently dangeors, it can be used for terrorism (which actually is the US argument against Iran's nuclear strategy inter alia), it actually uses coal generation to work (so it doesn't replace fossil fuels at all), it uses a lot of water, it uses energy for extraction of raw materials and energy in their transport to the plant (emissions!) and it's NOT cost effective. Nuclear power generators rely on government subsidies - they have huge set up costs etc. Everyone knows that nuclear power cannot survive in a liberal market, so why is the US, which is pushing liberalisation & privitisation of energy markets, pushing nuclear power? Further, nuclear power doesn't work in heat, so it's ridiculous to see it as a solution to global warming.....what could anyone gain from nuclear power? It's grid based, it's centralised.
The best solution to world's energy needs, as voiced by NGOs at this commission, particularly Greenpeace (when represeting this major group) is decentralised renewable energy! It's democratic and sustainable.
Most of the world's energy consumption is from G8 nations. It seems reasonable and effective to decrease energy consumption - in attending the EC mission's meeting in which they put their thinking caps on & said that as the most advanced area in the world they should advance policies in carbon decrease, including in decreasing consumption - I noticed that the mineral water and the orange juice dispersed was also dispersed with plastic cups. Is is just me, or did something go wrong here?
As for lib/priv of energy markets, this tends to isolate the poor and remote communites. The Bolivian workers shared their example, when representing the TU/wks major group, that public resistance to foreign corporate ownership of their water and energy resources has led to renegotiation of contracts with the corporations to the benefit of the people with funds going to education and public services. Some good news.
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