UNIDO chief urges int'l community to help developing countries develop green energy
Xinhua | 2009-06-23 07:36:53
VIENNA, June 22 -- Director-General of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) Kandeh K. Yumkella stressed here on Monday that the international community had to place emphasis on helping developing countries carry out green energy revolution.
At the beginning of the Vienna International Energy Conference held on Monday, he said, although in the context of the global financial and economic crisis, the international community had to focus on the development of green energy, and in particular, pay attention to development of green energy in developing countries.
He warned that the current global financial and economic crisis has resulted in a global decrease of 20 percent to 30 percent in investment in the area of renewable energy. Moreover, it might take many years to bring the relevant investment to return to the original level.
Nevertheless, the crisis also forced the countries to "pay more attention to the real economy again." Therefore, the UNIDO must use the chance brought by this global crisis to their advantage to promote "a green energy revolution."
He highlighted, the most important task of UNIDO was to help developing countries develop their economy, while avoiding the mistakes made by developed countries in the development process. At present, they should particularly strengthen support in the promotion of "green energy revolution" for developing countries.
According to the estimation of the economic expert of Vienna University of Technology, Nebojsa Nakicenovic, the current annual investment in global energy industry was about 350 billion U.S. dollars, of which more than 100 billion dollars for renewable energy.
The president of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also pointed out, the realization of the transformation of energy mix to renewable energy cannot abandon developing countries, which would be particularly important to them.
During the meeting, some experts also stressed the importance of the use of new technologies to reduce carbon dioxide emissions, and also pointed out that, at least in the foreseeable future, nuclear energy would continue to be an important part.
At present, about one-sixth of global electricity production is by nuclear energy. This three-day International Energy Conference is organized by UNIDO, the Government of Austria, and the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and the Global Forum on Sustainable Energy.
Some 500 experts in relevant fields as well as politicians from all over the world attended the meeting.
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