NO NO NAIROBI: Renewables For The Third world? The UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, held in Kenya in August, was virtually ignored by the U.S. presswhile the European and world press covered it extensively. This article comes from a participant who thinks we ought to know what our U.S. delegation said for us. ___c_MR by Gary Gallon Environment Liaison Centre Any chance of success for the Nairobi Plan of Action a~ the UN Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy held in Nairobi in August was s.cuttled by the hardline stand of the Reagan U.S. delegation. The delegation would agree neither to a new institution, nor to a new funding mechanism to support a United Nations follow-up program. Other donor nations were interested in supporting both, if an agreement courd be reached. The major stumbling block was the institutional arrangement. The best compromise would have been to give the responsibility for the Plan of Action to the UN Committee of Natural Resources which reports to the Economic and Social Council, and to expand the membership of the Committee to include all nations which sit in the UN General Assembly. Currently, the Committee has a limited membership which favors the industrialized countries. The compromise was opposed. · There were two key reasons for the U.S. stone-wall position. First, it reflects the Reagan administration's new financial posture of cutting back funds on all social and aid assistance programs while increasing its military expenditures. Secondly, it reflects the Reagan administration's decision to depend upon military might to solve world problems rather than on the United Nations system. The U.S. Government's interest in the U.N. has shifted to neutral. The U.S. made a feeble attempt to show some cooperation with developing countries when it unilaterally announced it was doubling its U.S. AID (Agency for lnternatfonal Development) contributions to renewable energy.programs from U.S. $35 million to $70 million. It was a small amount and only a reshuffling of old cash. The U.S. NGOs (non-governmental organizations) representatives did not waste ~my time in condemning the U.S. stance at the Conference. Outraged by the avoidance and stalling tactics of the. delegation, the U.S . NGOs called a press conference and issued a statement detailing the Reagan administration actions which have scuttled U.S. renewable energy programs at home and overseas. Several U.S. Congressmen visiting Nairobi at the time joined in the criticism, revealing the depth of division among the U.S. people over the anti-development, anti-renewable energy stand of the new President. In the meanwhile, the International NGO Forum on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, also held August in Nairobi, brought together 650 Non-governmental organization representatives from 63 countries to discuss ways NGOs could improve their energy programs. Eleven panels and 75 workshops were held to discuss activities ranging from the technologies of bio-gas to methods for lobbying governments. · November 1981 RAIN Page 5 NGOs were responsible for strengthening the Nairobi Plan of Action statements on women, the environment and NGOs. The NGO n~wspaper, RENEWS, became the eyes and ears of the Conference, reaching through the bureaucratic smoke and exposing key issues. Ten editions were printed. Sets are available for U.S. $15 · from the E.r:.C., P.O. Box 72461, Nairobi, Kenya. The Forum, in conjunction with the Kenya NGOs Working in the Field of Renewable Energy (KENGO), held a "Fuelwood March" August 11. One thousand peovle paraded through the streets of Nairobi, arriving at the steps of the Conference Center where they were met by Kurt Waldheim, t.he UN Secretary-General, and Prime Minister Trudeau of Canada, Prime Minister Falldin of Sweden, and Prime Minister Seaga of Jamaica. The march impressed upon the Conference delegates the importance of the world's second energy crisis, depletioh of firewood and charcoal. Nuclear power was not supposed to be a part of the Conference deliberations. It had been kept out ·of the agenda on purpose, apparently because governments were afraid of the political uproar and public opposition. The NGO Forum agreed not to focus on the nu- ' .dear issue. However, it turned out that the'atomic interests were at work. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had convinced the Prime Minister of Jamaica, Seaga, to 'propose that the U. N. responsibility for renewable energy be given to IAEA. He proposed this in his speech to the Conference. In the meanwhile, other government representatives promoted nuclear'power as the most ,viable source of energy to replace oil, and played down the prospects of renewable energy being a major replacement source in the near future. The NGO Forum responded by holding a workshop on "Nuclear Power and Renewable Energy." It c'ondemned the promotion of nuclear power, listed the numerous problems associated with its use, and noted that even after 30 years of generous R&D funds, nuclear was still not a viable source of energy. The workshop also outlined the accumulation of research and development funds in nuclear, leaving little for renewable energy .0 0 Gary Gallon was the Coordinator of the International NGO Forum on New and Renewable Sources of Energy. He spent four years in Nairobi as the Executive Director of the Environment Liaison Centre. The U.S. Government's interest in the UN has shifted to neutral. '.There is an area of conservation that many governments are reluctant to talk about. It is in the field of military activities. Few of us realize how much energy is u.sed to build, arm 1 arid fuel national armies. The most conspicuous consumers are, of course, the United States and the USSR. But others are laying 'out mote and more for military·purposes. These include France and South Africa, and Third World nations such as Brazil and Pakistan. OPEC nations have been especially busy converting the money transferred from oil sales into non-productive military purposes. It takes almost a year's supply of petrol used by a tank to build a tank. Large amounts of energy are used from extraction and processing of the steel all the way to fabricating and assembling the .body. The same goes for navy battleships and fighter planes. The production of nuclear warheads consumes more energy by weight than any other weapon. Military exercise and naval ship movements from ocean to ocean wastes even more precious energy resources. Governments will show that they are serious about solving the energy crisis when they'begin to plug the energy drain created by unnecessary military activities.
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