POZNAN, Poland (Bandillo ng Palawan) – A patch of swaying sunflowers painted with smiley faces in pastel shades swayed unceasingly on the floor, providing an amusing contrast to the display of eco-friendly transport and grey machinery at the clean technology pavilion.
Tiny solar cells power the dancing sunflowers, part of a wide range of exhibits at the United Nations conference on climate change here that show how the world can curb emissions while achieving economic growth, and even have fun while doing it.
A Belgian artist allowed the group Solar Solidarity International to utilize his installation in order to provide energy from the sun to schools, clinics and other projects in poor countries.
Their efforts reflect the needs that a new institution—the International Renewable Energy Agency or IRENA—aims to answer when it is formally launched in Bonn in January.
“Energy is at the very core of the climate debate,” said Environment Minister Connie Hedegaard of Denmark, one of the countries promoting the initiative. She predicted that investments for renewable energy such as solar and wind power would go up in the near future, but admitted that profitability was still currently at low levels.
Environment minister Elena Espinosa of Spain, which also supports IRENA, said the agency would help improve regulations and build capacity on renewable energy. Among its services would be to provide practical advice, best practice databases, and research on socioeconomic conditions in various regions.
The move signals a more positive mood among environment officials engaged in the climate negotiations, despite the general sentiment among negotiators that very little progress was made in Poznan.
“I believe that causes for hope and optimism are greater than causes for doubt and disappointment,” former US vice president and climate campaigner Al Gore told the delegates hours before the conference was due to close Friday.
He cited the efforts of China, which has overtaken the United States as the world’s biggest polluter, to curb its carbon emissions through funding for renewable energy and a massive tree-planting project.
Gore warned negotiators that climate change “affects the survival of our civilization” and reminded them of their duty to ensure that future generations would not suffer its negative impact. “It is not a political issue. It is a moral issue,” he said.
In a speech before environment ministers, UN climate chief Yvo de Boer said, “There is a push for economic recovery that will also achieve green growth and green investments to prevent a next economic crisis sparked by dirty, obsolete investments.”
Senior fellow Mohamed El-Ashry of the UN Foundation shared the view, saying, “Renewable energy will renew the economy.”
The Philippines is among the leaders in the developing world in utilizing renewable energy, with more than 40 percent of its primary energy needs coming from solar, biomass, geothermal and hydropower sources, according to the Department of Energy.
In the northern Philippines, wind power supplies half the electricity needs of Ilocos Norte province under a Clean Development Mechanism project with Denmark, which provided the 20 windmills and trained the engineers operating the power plant.
Presidential adviser on climate change Heherson Alvarez said several sites on the western coast may be tapped to harness the country’s wind energy potential of up to 70,000 megawatts and replace oil- and coal-fired plants that contribute to global warming.
Rajendra Pachauri, chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, noted that global action in lowering carbon emissions has been weak so far. “If global mean temperature increase is to be stabilized between 2.0 and 2.4 degrees Celsius, then carbon dioxide emissions must peak by 2015,” he said.
In his speech at the conference, UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon recalled Poland’s historic role as the birthplace of the famed trade union Solidarity 20 years ago.
“It set in motion an historic transformation. Today we need a global solidarity on climate change, the defining challenge of our era,” he said.
The Poznań conference drew 11,600 participants and comes one year ahead of a crucial conference in Copenhagen that is expected to set a new agreement on climate change by 2013. The new treaty will replace the targets from industrialized countries to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the Kyoto Protocol.
One of the buzz phrases in Poznan was “a shared vision towards long-term cooperative action,” and to dramatize its message, youth delegates set up an inflatable baobab tree in the exhibits pavilion. Four people have to hug the tree to plug the holes in its trunk and revive it, a fitting metaphor for the need to work together to combat climate change.