Governments around the world must develop long-term, coherent energy policies that address energy security, energy poverty as well as environmental impacts in order to attract investment in the sector, according to the World Energy Council (WEC).
In a new report examining the sustainability of energy policies around the world, WEC says that countries that focus on reducing greenhouse gases alone will not be able to deliver a sustainable energy system, and that free market solutions cannot achieve sustainable goals on their own.
It ranks Switzerland, Sweden and France as being the countries with the most coherent and robust energy policies in an analysis of 92 countries. It believes that countries that have diversified their energy resources and have well-established energy efficiency programmes are best at providing stable, affordable and environmentally sensitive energy.
Germany and Canada also score high in WEC’s 2011 energy sustainability index, although none of the countries leading the index scores highly in all three areas of the energy “trilemma” of energy security, affordability and environmental performance.
WEC wants policymakers attending international climate talks in Durban, South Africa, in November to address “all the dimensions of the energy trilemma as a long term solution to solve tomorrow’s energy challenges”.
“As we approach the COP 17 meeting and next year’s conference on sustainable development in 2012 in Rio, these issues take on additional importance,” said Joan MacNaughton, executive chairwoman of the WEC report. “They will determine to a large extent the ability of emerging and developing countries to set policy frameworks that will build markets and attract private investment.”
Chairman of WEC Pierre Gadonneix, said: “With the uncertain economic outlook the need for more robust investment frameworks is now even more critical to attract the massive investment that is needed in the energy sector to achieve the Energy Trilemma: energy security, climate and environment protection and the eradication of energy poverty.
“In particular, public policies must provide the market with robust frameworks and typically grant actors with: prices that reflect real costs, long-term visibility, an implicit or explicit CO2 price, an assumed responsibility of States to develop and ensure safety and acceptance, as well as environmental standards.”
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