10. Sustainable Energy Development

Background

International agreements can play an important role in making the transition from fossil fuels and nuclear energy to conservation and use of clean, renewable sources of energy. In addition to being indispensable for economic development, energy is vital for sustaining human life. Meeting essential human needs must be the central aim of an energy plan based on equity between peoples and generations.

Guiding Principle: Integrated Resource Planning

Integrated Resource Planning (IRP) allows for the best usage of the most appropriate form of energy, taking into account social and environmental factors. IRP responds to several criteria, not just market costs, in deciding how to use resources. It makes room for renewable resources because it employs "full cost accounting," taking into account social and environmental costs when evaluating options.

IRP includes energy-saving measures and energy efficiency planning as a way of minimizing new construction of generating facilities and use of raw materials. Demand management is an essential feature of IRP. Similarly, IRP requires public consultation as a prerequisite for building a social consensus for every stage of reorienting the energy market.

We propose that the principles of IRP be included in Inter-American integration agreements.

Specific Objectives

Hemispheric

• Make energy consumption and production sustainable, i.e., more efficient, renewable and clean, and less carbon intensive.

• Enhance access to affordable energy services to those who are without or are underserved.

• Minimize society's energy costs by applying "life-cycle" accounting to a mix of resource and end use options. Life-cycle accounting incorporates the full environmental and social costs involved in the choice of a particular technology. Thus, for example, wind-power still has a low life-cycle cost even after taking into account the initial cost of producing, transporting and constructing windmills.

National

Energy policy decisions must be guided by credible mechanisms for evaluating environmental impacts and for public participation. In order to promote optimal use of resources from a social and environmental perspective, national public agencies should be established to oversee environmental assessments and efficient management of energy resources.

Supranational

The right to pursue policies of national development and resource management must be coupled with collective responsibilities.

Thus, each country should have the right to manage its own renewable and non-renewable resources without being obliged to continue to export those resources even in times of national shortages (as currently is the case for Canada under NAFTA's proportional sharing clauses, Articles 315 and 605, but not for Mexico, which has an exemption).

At the same time, countries endowed with non-renewable hydrocarbon resources should minimize their exploitation, to avoid contributing to greenhouse gas emissions causing global climate change and depleting the resource base for future generations. Governments should also support a moratorium on exploration in new areas for coal, natural gas and oil as a step towards the transition to clean and renewable energy sources.

An international agreement should allow members to make complaints against countries that try to gain commercial advantage at the expense of sustainability. National and International agencies should cooperate to:

• create regulatory incentives for investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy;

• eliminate pricing and regulatory policies which subsidize or encourage increased sales, consumption and use of fossil fuels; and

• create an Energy Efficient and Renewable Technologies Consortium to promote such technologies.