Global Issue Paper No. 10
An Analytical Framework for Creating an Enabling Environment
By the International Institute for Energy Conservation (IIEC)
Edited by Marc Berthold, Heinrich Böll Foundation North America, and Bosworth Dewey, International Institute for Energy Conservation,
Washington, June 2004
Introduction
At the 2002 World Summit for Sustainable Development (WSSD) in Johannesburg, a consensus emerged amongst stakeholders on the vital connection between sustainable energy development and appropriate economic development. Access to sustainable andaffordable energy was not only seen as a cornerstone of national economic development, but also as a critical element to poverty alleviation and social equity. As part of the follow up to the WSSD and its renewable energy initiatives, the Heinrich Böll Foundation has supported this study under its North – South Dialogue Program. One of the difficulties in developing an approach to renewable energy transition, and the underlying motivation for this study, is that each country has a very unique set of circumstances and conditions that promote or hinder renewable energy development. What works in South Africa, with its abundant coal reserves, heavy industry and cheap energy prices is going to be quite different than what works in the Philippines with its dispersed, island-based agricultural economy. Therefore, the real intent in our case studies is not to focus on each PPI design and results per se, but also to analyze how these PPIs addressed the barriers and challenges and promoted transition within their specific contexts. The real challenge is to develop a methodology that can enable us to compare and contrast such disparate case studies.
As a result, this study is intended to provide the basic framework for further deliberations on the potential paths of renewable energy development. It is hoped that it will be a useful starting point for substantive discourse between local governments, NGO’s, donors and Multilateral Financial Institutions, and any other stakeholders in the process on effective mechanisms to promote renewable energy.
This study and the workshops that lead up to the International Conference for Renewable Energy 2004 in Bonn are primarily focused on learning experiences between Southern nations. While there are several instances of transitional efforts in developed Northern countries, the Heinrich Böll Foundation felt that it was more useful for developing nations to learn from other nations that are facing similar development challenges.
The study attempts to follow a series of questions in order to frame the dialogue within real conditions in which each economy finds itself:
- What is the energy system in place and what are the energy and development challenges which each country is attempting to address?
- What are the primary drivers, motivations, for the nation to support the development of RE. What are the stated goals of the government and what lies behind them. Is it fuel import substitution, rural economic development and electrification, or climate change?
- What were some of the policy initiatives or program mechanisms which each country attempted to undertake and were they successful in creating an environment in the energy market for new energy technologies and implementers to take root?
- What were the lessons learned that other nations could utilize to address similar energy and development challenges?
The report presents a model of RE transition in the second chapter. Subsequent chapters provide a case study of the application of the model in the five countries to specific PPIs to promote RE.