Nobel Prize winner and US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu invited them, and they turned out in numbers. Twenty-four government delegations came to Washington, DC to participate in the “first ever” – as the Americans declared – Clean Energy Ministerial (CEM), a follow on to President Obama’s Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate (MEF) in 2009, which aimed to support the international climate process. The Forum, in fact, presented a number of Technology Action Plans for different segments of a low-carbon energy economy in Copenhagen. The delegations in Washington sought to build on these outcomes, take up individual recommendations from the plans and develop these further.



The result is a motley mix of applications that would do a smartphone proud. Multilateral working groups will focus on a diverse spectrum ranging from energy efficiency in household appliances to electromobility and from Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) to globally mapping potential sites for biomass utilization or scaling up solar and wind energy. However, this is mostly a case of old wine in new bottles. Activities that are already ongoing merely receive a financial update and join in the ranks of the US initiative. This may actually be useful where it facilitates bundling and utilizing synergies at the international level, as is the case with the long-term strategy for building solar and wind energy capacities envisaged by Germany, Denmark and Spain.



But if the US government hoped that its high-charged performance and international endorsement would foster climate-friendly momentum on the domestic front, it was in for disappointment. Its ambitions of a leadership role in shaping global energy policy have been undermined by the lack of corresponding legislation at home. Thus, from a negotiating perspective, the United States will once again go into the next climate conference in Cancún without domestic backing. Although individual states have introduced encouraging regulations, these alone are not sufficient to fill the national vacuum. This problem was highlighted in a recently released study of the World Resources Institute. Years of delay appear likely. Cold comfort then that the next Clean Energy Ministerial is slated to take place as soon as spring 2011 in Abu Dhabi. (Dennis Taenzler)



For further information on the CEM, please see http://www.cleanenergyministerial.org/materials.html



The study "Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the United States Using Existing Federal Authorities and State Action" published by the World Resources Institute is available here.

Published in: ECC-Newsletter, August 2010