Renewable Energy and Sustainable Development

(as prepared for delivery)

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you to the Government of China for hosting this important event.

The next two years are of particular importance for energy and sustainable development. With the UN Commission on Sustainable Development’s energy cycle, we have an opportunity to make real progress on a key developmental issue. Simply put, energy powers development. Energy boosts crop production, drives industry, and increases jobs. Energy moves water, brings schools into the 21^st century, and lights, heats, and cools health facilities around the world. Energy services are essential for meeting the internationally agreed development goals.

Our measure of success during the CSD Energy Cycle is whether we deliver concrete, on-the-ground results that improve access to modern, clean, healthy, and efficient energy services.

To make progress, it is important to be very clear about what we are trying to accomplish. I am referring specifically to identifying the metrics we will use to measure our success. Let me give three examples. One metric that the United States will use is to measure the number of people around the world we have hooked up to electricity services. Through U.S. government support for the Global Village Energy Partnership and other programs, 12.9 million people have received increased access to electricity since 2002. A second area is energy efficiency. Through the Energy Star program, which promotes energy efficiency, we can report that Americans saved enough energy last year to power 24 million homes and avoid greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to those from 20 million cars. A third area is improved and healthier fuels. A recent study in Jakarta showed that the average levels of lead in children's blood has dropped in half since leaded gasoline was phased out in the city. The Partnership for Clean Fuels and Vehicles, initiated in 2002, is working to deliver these types of results in many additional countries across the globe. For CSD to be successful it must galvanize these kinds of concrete, measurable results.

The mechanisms that deliver results are handled by specialists and project implementers in organizations around the world. They take time and effort to produce. That is why the Beijing International Renewable Energy Conference is so important. If we are to achieve results on renewables it will be through the consistent efforts of a range of experts working throughout this two-year cycle. The work on renewables during the energy cycle could never be accomplished by UN negotiators working for five weeks in New York.

Facilitating the Diffusion of Renewables

The United States endorses the full spectrum of energy technologies, including conventional, advanced, energy efficiency, and of course, renewables. We value the "co-benefits," including reduced atmospheric emissions and improved health. The main driver for the diffusion of renewable energy technologies is price. At the end of the day it is reducing the price of renewable energy technologies to make them cost-competitive that will assure their widest possible use.

U.S. Government Action

That is why at last year’s Bonn Renewables conference, the United States focused on market cost targets for renewable energy technologies. Over the past 20 years, the United States has spent billions of dollars on renewable energy R&D. During that period the cost of wind-generated electricity has dropped from 80 cents per kilowatt-hour to nearly five cents, while the cost of a grid-connected residential solar system has dropped from nearly 2 dollars per kilowatt-hour to around 25. In Bonn last year, the United States announced that our goal was three cents per kilowatt-hour by 2012 for wind, and 6 cents per kilowatt-hour by 2020 for solar.

In the United States, nine percent of our electricity needs are met by renewable energy. We use the full range of renewable energy resources, from hydroelectric to biomass to geothermal to wind. Wind energy is our fastest growing renewable energy resource, with installed capacity tripling between 1998 and 2003. The 2005 Energy Policy Act renews a "production tax credit" for wind that has already contributed over 5400 MW of installed wind capacity from 1995-2004.

In 2004, the total U.S. federal on-budget support for renewables was over $2 billion, including a research and development budget of well over $300 million. Our 2005 Energy Policy Act expands R&D programs. At the front lines of this R&D effort is the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), one of the world’s premier research facilities on renewable energy and energy efficiency.

Technical assistance and analytic tools also are important. The United States Government supports industrial innovation through NREL’s National Wind Technology Center, where cutting edge techniques test commercial wind turbine designs. The United States also conducts resource assessments that facilitate the diffusion of renewables. These efforts include wind resource mapping both in the United States and abroad that help investors identify cost effective renewable options.

In the U.S., state and local government plays a key role, contributing additional hundreds of millions of dollars to renewables efforts. Furthermore, 19 states (18 states plus D.C.) have adopted Renewable Portfolio Standards or similar instruments. One of the most successful examples of such standards is in Texas, the result of a law signed by then-Governor George W. Bush. According to the recently released REN21 Renewables 2005 Global Status Report, current state Renewable Portfolio Standards laws could contribute an additional 52 GW of renewables by 2020 thereby more than doubling existing U.S. renewables capacity.

What we find in the United States is that our 50 states are really 50 laboratories exploring options to increase the use of renewable energy. On the basis of this experience, we have learned an important lesson: no one-size-solution fits all states. This lesson applies globally as well each country faces a unique energy challenge with unique solutions. Some countries have vast solar resources, others wind, others geothermal, and still others hydroelectric. We cannot pick a single technology, nor a single policy to promote growth in renewables – there is no magic bullet.

Looking Ahead

So, how do we go forward? How can we increase the diffusion of renewable energy and, more broadly, increasing access to modern, clean, healthy, and efficient energy services?

First, we need to continue R&D to lower the cost. I have already described government programs and I am pleased to note that a wide range of companies have recently made high-profile commitments on energy issues in recent years. GE, for example, launched its "Ecomagination" initiative, in which it defines its core business as providing clean, efficient energy services to help solve energy poverty. Just last month, Wal-Mart announced that it will double the fuel efficiency of its global truck fleet within 10 years, and will design new buildings that are 25% more efficient. Raising the profile of energy issues, a key result of the CSD’s energy cycle, helps attract business investment, investment that eventually will help reduce the cost of renewables.

Second, we need to develop a menu of policy options for decision makers. The United States believes that the CSD can play a key role in developing such options and presenting them in an easy to use, web friendly format.

Third, we need to work through partnerships to foster implementation. The United States is pleased to participate in REN21 the network formed after last year’s Bonn Conference  and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, or REEEP.

On a final note, I’d like to highlight the announcement the United States made at this weekend’s REN21 steering committee meeting about a new capacity building initiative on renewables. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory, in partnership with UNEP and others, has developed a "geospatial toolkit" that helps users identify renewable energy technologies appropriate for their situation. NREL will use the internet to make this valuable tool accessible to those countries that have chosen to increase their reliance on renewable energy. We would be interested in partnering with others to expand this distance learning effort to meet a broad range of renewable energy information and capacity building needs.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.