Rio summit must make a difference for clean energy

World leaders have debated the merits of sustainable development and a green economy at Rio+20, the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.

Protesters have used the event to highlight injustice.

And it is possible that something substantial will be done that benefits the environment. After all, this year’s theme is “a green economy in the context of sustainable development, poverty eradication and the institutional framework for sustainable development.”

However, listening to the current political discourse in the US makes me wonder if anyone in government is seriously considering moving towards a green economy.

Wall Street bankers, brokers and speculators remain so obsessed with profits and weird anti-populist goals like killing Dodd-Frank, the already weak consumer protection law, that real values ​​are swept like last quarter’s balance sheet. The concepts of quality of life, a better place for children, and the continued proliferation of the American way, where everyone has a chance to succeed, are nothing but hot air.

a billion reasons

Robert Redford put it succinctly in a Huffington Post article: “We can do better,” he writes. His point is that with so much at stake, we need to shift the emphasis a bit to clean energy and eliminate the nearly “a trillion dollars in subsidies… handed out to help the fossil fuel industry” each year.

This is the opinion of author and activist Bill McKibben, from an email he sent to the 350.org network: “We know that world leaders are unlikely to achieve a comprehensive climate breakthrough in Rio.” But he says stopping subsidizing the fossil fuel industry “would give renewable energy a fighting chance.”

The buzzword now is employment. The issue is so important that people are ready to jump into anything, even a silly pipeline project that taps into perhaps the most planet-cooking reserves Earth has to offer.

Jobs, jobs, jobs

Redford says, and is backed up by numerous studies, that every federal or state dollar invested in clean energy multiplies several times the yield of fossil fuels. Truly, that’s the kind of work that makes sense. Here in the San Joaquin Valley of California, we are trying to prepare a ready workforce. A consortium of community colleges has come together to craft a curriculum that meets industry specifications and enables a green energy renaissance.

So the intent is to create living wage jobs, rather than jobs that perpetuate and exacerbate extreme economic divisions. The middle class is no longer bulletproof. Revenues are declining.

So how does a green economy fit in? Apparently it’s not easy. If it were up to me, I’d say, “Make the United States energy self-sufficient in 10 years, emphasizing sustainability.”

That doesn’t mean we should dump oil entirely. The material has been pretty good for us. Let’s give making the world a better place a chance by letting American ingenuity fill in the blanks.

Taking up the challenge

Britain’s former Prime Minister Tony Blair and a group of international statesmen and business leaders penned an open letter advocating a “clean revolution,” which they say is essential to “save our economies from the crippling costs of runaway climate change and create meaningful jobs and improve energy security.

The group is backing a campaign by businesses and governments calling for “green growth” to get out of the global recession.

Topical, especially with almost half a dozen countries in the European Union on the verge of financial collapse. Greece elected the Conservatives by a screeching margin that allowed markets a respite. But the future is unknown.

What’s the weather like?

Kathleen Rogers, president of the Earth Day Network, says there is a chance the Rio+ Summit will deliver, but “the outlook is bleak.”

Normally, I love those pessimistic things. It feeds the cantankerous spirit I got from 24 years in newspapers, running or editing stories about the best and the worst in people.

But I expect more. The summit marks the 20th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, and the 10th anniversary of the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa, the country where my Cousin Sarah has decided to raise her twins.

Rogers says the UN event two decades ago spawned real optimism and a climate change treaty that “charted a new course for sustainability.”

love at first dick

Implementation is a completely different topic. All that optimism from the first Rio summit was bitten by Spike, my 14-year-old blind and toothless dachshund. Oh, he still barks like crazy, just like those of us who believe in a sustainable future. But we need a pitbull.

Adding some fangs, or even some worn teeth, requires agreement and action. I think it wouldn’t take much. Many are willing to give everything to extract energy from those green crystals of dilithium.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative has lofty goals, calling for universal access to energy, doubling energy efficiency and doubling renewable energy by 2030. But he has allies.

nothing but wind

The European Wind Energy Association says that 75 countries around the world have installed wind turbines and 21 have more than 1,000 megawatts generating power. It says that supported by the right policies, projections show wind power will double capacity by 2015 and again by 2020.

“This is achievable,” says Kandeh K. Yumkella, Director General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization, in a statement.

After all, what choice do we have. Really?