mr president today one point five billion people are currently without access to electricity but access to energy is a prerequisite for the eradication of the poverty that these people live in
the right to energy implies that energy supplies achieve universal and reliable access equitable access that bridges the gap between urban and rural areas and is also affordable
it is also crucial for a country to develop a sustainable and secure energy supply and the most reliable and secure one is a decentralised use of renewables
but energy does not only need to be secure and reliable its production also needs to take into account other issues such as climate change deforestation environmental degradation human health and the poverty it causes
these problems cannot be tackled by fossil fuels
fossil fuels have a disastrous impact on health environment and climate
at the same time the climate crisis is doing more damage to those living in extreme poverty
fossil fuels create pollution that endangers both human health and a healthy environment and they are expensive and their prices increase the more we run out of oil and gas
fossil fuels create centralised hierarchic and inflexible energy distribution
we have to focus on renewables
we have to assist developing countries to leapfrog our destructive fossil fuel path
only renewables can bring a solution to these problems
renewable energy uses resources that will never run out and that many developing countries have in abundance sun and wind mainly
they can be employed locally on a very small and inexpensive scale which is also in a very literal sense empowering people
decentralised power supplies are in the hands of the people
they are democratic
nevertheless the world bank continues to push fossils in its energy strategy
recent increases in lending for renewable and energy sufficiency remain tiny and cannot cover up the obvious preferences
fossil fuel investments are also taking place through financial intermediaries which the world bank does not sufficiently monitor
there is an under-reporting of fossil fuels
the bank continues to make significant investment in coal-fired power plants locking developing countries into coal-based energy for decades to come
this is not what an energy revolution looks like
the world bank's energy policy suffers from a lack of transparency
this problem should be addressed through the definition of clear requirements that financial intermediaries must meet in order to be eligible for multilateral financing
forty of world bank loans to the private sector are transferred through those financial intermediaries and a large part of those loans goes to the energy sector in particular extractives
however unlike direct bank project investments there is no information publicly available on these individual sub-project investments making it very difficult to track what ultimately happens to financial intermediaries funding
when we look at what sort of energy is counted as low carbon we can find large hydropower plants in the strategy
such large hydroplants destroy vast amounts of nature and drive people from their homes
this is not sustainable and this is not in the interests of the people and of society
also carbon capture and storage do not make coal power low carbon
the co is still there and nobody can predict what will happen to it underground
none of us can say for sure that it will stay there calmly for the next millennia
this is fortune telling and not research and certainly not policy making
the same goes for nuclear energy
uranium mining produces huge amounts of co and nobody knows what to do with the waste we are producing
this is not low carbon and this is not sustainable
this is why the green efa group will vote against the resolution unless the low carbon wording is replaced
however we also see some good points in the resolution for example the focus on off-grid renewables for rural areas and small-scale local production as well as the concern about the dominance of export orientation large-scale plants and bio fuels
a last word we also very much focus on the call for enhanced technology transfer
in particular technology transfer will not need much if intellectual property rights are left intact
the overriding goal should be to treat intellectual property rights in a manner that allows access to technology at affordable prices
this is what we promised at the climate negotiations and we should stick to our promise
