|
Thursday, 21 September, 2000, 02:42 GMT 03:42 UK
UN attacks Europe's fuel policies
By UN correspondent Mark Devenport
One of the United Nations' most senior officials has warned that the battle for clean air and sustainable energy is in danger of being lost as a result of the public backlash against high oil prices. Mark Malloch Brown, the head of the UN Development Programme, was speaking at the launch of a UN-sponsored assessment of world energy trends. He said environmental concerns were
noticably lacking during the current protests in western Europe over high fuel
prices.
"You didn't hear the British Government or its counterparts in continental
Europe saying that the basis for high fuel prices was environmental concerns for
clean air," he said.
"Rather they stressed law and order and resisting direct action and the need
to have government tax revenues to spend on health care and education and other
goals," he added.
Increased demand
The authors of the report believe the world's consumption of energy will
double over the next 35 years.
Richer countries are becoming more efficient at using energy, but developing
countries' consumption will more than outweigh this.
The report acknowledges that the world's energy resources will not run out in
the next 50-100 years, but it argues that there remains a need to use energy far
more efficiently in order to limit negative consequences such as global warming.
Mr Malloch Brown says that 10 years after world governments focused on global
warming at the Rio summit, there is a real risk that the battle for clean air
and sustainable energy might be lost.
He argues for what he calls "smart energy policies" which encompass extending
more modern forms of energy to the two billion people in poorer nations who
don't have access to electricity.
He would like to promote greater use of renewable energy sources such as
wind, water and solar power.
The UN report suggests these energy sources could be made more competitive by
reducing subsidies on fossil fuels and making sure the environmental cost of
burning oil or coal is fully included in their price.
http://envirolink.netforchange.com/frame.html?page=search.html%3Fcatid%3D10%26sourcetype%3Dnews |
