News & Highlights

Wilton Park Conference 1036
TRANSITING TO A LOW CARBON ECONOMY:
HOW TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL POLICY AND REGULATION HAPPEN

Monday 21 - Thursday 24 June 2010

In co-operation with the
Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership

And with the support from the
International Confederation of Energy Regulators and
The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London

Renewable energy and energy efficiency are an increasingly vital part of energy supply. The massive oil leak of the US coast has called attention to the environmental and social risks of excessive dependence on oil, coal and gas. The Copenhagen Summit showed how hard it is to get an agreement on climate change.

From Left: Richard Morgan, Joint Head, Public Diplomacy and Strategic Campaigns, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London with Kunihiko Shimada, Principal International Policy Coordinator and Negotiator, Global Environment Bureau, Ministry of the Environment, Tokyo and Richard Burge, Chief Executive, Wilton Park

The conference programme is available here.

Everyone from the World Bank, Deutsche Bank and Bianca Jagger discussed the need for transition to a low carbon economy at the annual conference on renewable energy staged by Wilton Park and the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), 21 - 24 June 2010.

From Left: Leena Srivastava, Executive Director, The Energy and Resources Institute, New Delhi, Ingrid Fiskaa, State Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oslo, Manuel de Andrade, Chairperson, Centre for Mozambican and International Studies, Maputo, Rachel English, Founder, Helios Social Enterprise, London

Ms Jagger called for a "Copernican revolution" in moving beyond carbon to a decentralized, sustainable energy system.

Bianca Jagger, Founder and Chair, Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation; Council of Europe Goodwill Ambassador; Member of the Executive Director's Leadership Council, Amnesty International, USA; Trustee, Amazon Charitable Trust. See links below.

The conference, with strong representation from Asia and the South, called together energy regulators from Italy to India, including Lord Mogg, Chairman of Ofgem.

Claude Turmes, Vice President of the Green Group, European Parliament, Brussels with Lord Mogg, Chairman, the Office of Gas and Electricity Markets (OFGEM), London

The power of renewable energy as a viable commercial enterprise - even for the "poorest billion" at the "bottom of the pyramid" was stressed by Dipal Barua, who is working to provide 75 million people, half of the population of Bangladesh with solar power cheaper than the cost of kerosene. The Bright Green Energy Foundation is working to train 100,000 woman entrepreneurs at village level to disseminate the technology.

One session at the conference took participants from Tuvalu in the Pacific - which has no land higher than 5 metres above sea level - to the Himalayas in Nepal. Climate change and the need for cheap, reliable energy are policy challenges in both countries.

Speakers included:

• the head of the worldwide network, the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, Dr Marianne Moscoso-Osterkorn and some of her international projects coordinated by Binu Parthan;
• the key Japanese climate expert and negotiator Kunihiko Shimada
• British Energy Regulator, Lord Mogg, Chairman of Ofgem;
• Kausea Natano, a government minister from Tuvalu in the Pacific whose country wants to be carbon neutral by 2020;
• Bianca Jagger, human rights, social justice and climate change advocate
• Other policy specialists and politicians from countries including China, India, Mexico, Namibia and Norway.

Richard Burge, Chief Executive, Wilton Park (left), introduces Bianca Jagger.

Left: Marianne Moscoso-Osterkorn, Director General, Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership, Vienna with Bianca Jagger and Roger Williamson, Programme Director, Wilton Park

Kausea Natano, Minister of Works, Water and Energy, Tuvalu with Kyung-Jin Boo, Korea Energy Economics Institute

Rupa Devi Singh, Managing Director and CEO, Power Exchange India Ltd, Mumbai; Usha Ramachandra, Professor, Administrative Staff College of India, Hyderabad;
Bianca Jagger; Sudha Mahalingam, National Security Advisory Board and Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board, New Delhi

Useful links:

Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Partnership: http://www.reeep.org/

International Confederation of Energy Regulators:

http://www.icer-regulators.net/portal/page/portal/IERN_HOME/ICER_HOME

International Energy Agency

http://www.iea.org/

OFGEM

http://www.ofgem.gov.uk/Pages/OfgemHome.aspx

World Bank

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTENERGY2/0,,menuPK:4114636~pagePK:149018~piPK:149093~theSitePK:4114200,00.html

Bianca Jagger - full biography

Bianca Jagger Human Rights Foundation and Links describing Ms Jagger's recent work