Keynote Remarks During the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership's Side Event

I am delighted to be here today and to speak on energy and sustainable development, and the role of public-private partnerships.

The U.S. Government is very pleased to support the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP). It was at the 13th session of the Commission on Sustainable Development that I signed the Memorandum of Understanding with then-Secretary of State for Environment Margaret Beckett that signaled our commitment to this important public-private partnership.

We are committed to REEEP first because in its governance and implementation procedures it exemplifies the value of the public-private model. It asks government to do what it does best—public policy making—and asks the private sector to do what it does best: providing valuable products and services in cost-effective ways. Second, REEEP seeks to combine two distinct but integral areas: renewable energy and energy efficiency. REEEP helps make evident the synergies between increasing access to modern energy services through renewable energy, and delivering that energy efficiently. And finally, we of course wholeheartedly support the ultimate objective of this partnership: poverty alleviation and economic growth.

Let me say a few words on the importance we place on the centrality of energy to poverty eradication. Helping expand access to modern energy for the 2 billion people around the world who lack it is essential to reducing poverty.

We have for some time recognized the correlation between energy consumption and economic growth. That association is decoupled at higher levels of economic growth, when societies use less energy for each increase in economic production. Yet, at the lowest income levels, with increased energy consumption comes a significant improvement in the quality of life.

The importance of access to energy for poverty alleviation is why we participate in such partnerships as REEEP, and the Global Village Energy Partnership, on which I will speak shortly after this event.

Energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies also provide economic, social, political, and environmental benefits beyond alleviating poverty. Increased use of energy-efficiency measures such as building codes, appliance standards, and labels will not only provide greater air quality and reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but will also improve the bottom economic line by saving energy and money. Similarly, the provision of energy services for cooking, heating, refrigeration, motors, and illumination will lead to better education, health, and job creation and income generation opportunities, while at the same time enhancing the security of energy supplies and responding to the challenges of climate change.

That is the essence of the Asia-Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate, or APP. This new effort is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of clean-energy technologies for the multiple goals of energy security, improved air quality, reduced greenhouse gas reductions, sustainable economic growth, and poverty reduction.

We need not limit our vision when adopting renewable energy and energy-efficiency practices and measures. That is precisely why we here at CSD-15 are spending so much time talking about how we can increase the use of these technologies and how we can replicate successful energy-efficiency and renewable-energy programs.

The CSD Secretariat has done a great service by putting together the matrix, and I want to thank and congratulate all those who have contributed best practices to the matrix, including REEEP partners. In our view, the optimal way to advance sustainable energy for poverty alleviation and its other benefits is to increase the understanding of what works and to disseminate and share lessons learned in these areas.

The U.S. Government is engaged in a number of important renewable energy and energy efficiency initiatives, such as the Solar America Initiative, the Save Energy Now program, and Energy Star, that contribute to the multiple goals I have described. Each of those initiatives entails a cooperative relationship between the private and public sectors. We all need to work together. We need to work collaboratively across sectors and national borders, using a myriad of technologies and practices that are facilitated, transferred, and adopted by transparent and efficient markets and policy and regulatory regimes.

That is the objective of REEEP. I hope that REEEP will continue to do excellent work in bridging the renewable-energy and energy-efficiency communities and manifesting the critical synergies that exist. I congratulate all of you on your efforts and successes to date, and encourage the accomplishments that are sure to come.