Bangkok, 1 May 2007 – “The message is clear: we must choose clean and safe energy solutions–anything else is a betrayal to the earth’s future generations.” Greenpeace and SolarGeneration youth issued this challenge to world governments this week as they presented renewable energy and energy efficiency solutions at the opening of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III meeting held in Bangkok.
SolarGeneration, students campaigning for the greater use of renewable energy around the world, spoke out as they met wth IPCC Chair Dr. Rajendra Pachauri, a special guest at their SolarGeneration kiosk just outside the meeting venue at the UN Convention Center. Dr Pachauri addressed the students, representing youth from the Philippines, Thailand, India, Indonesia, China, Germany, and France, and acknowledged the importance of youth involvement on climate change issues.
“The only climate change solutions we want are those that will guarantee a safer and better future. Our governments should not consider proposals which will do more harm than good,” said Karla de Guia, a SolarGeneration member from Bacolod, Philippines. “We believe that renewable energy is the only perfect solution.”
The IPCC meets in Bangkok to discuss policy recommendations to mitigate climate change. The report will be made public at the end of the meeting on Thursday. Various press agencies have reported that options expected to be presented in the meeting will range from energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy to dangerous and untested technologies such as nuclear and carbon capture and storage.
Greenpeace is asking governments around the world to take immediate action to revolutionize global energy production and use in response to repeated dire warnings on climate change issued on two earlier IPCC meetings this year.
“The only acceptable solutions are the massive uptake of clean, renewable energy, and energy efficiency. Greenpeace has shown that the world can have safe, robust renewable energy, that we can achieve the efficiencies needed. We can do all this even while phasing out damaging and dangerous sources such as coal and nuclear. And we need to do this now,” said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Climate & Energy Campaigner Tara Buakamsri.
Greenpeace last week launched a report entitled ‘Energy [R]evolution: A sustainable East Asia Energy Outlook,’ which details how renewable energy, combined with efficiencies from the ‘smart use’ of energy, can deliver half of the world’s energy needs by 2050.
The report comes at a time when countries in Asia are considering various alternatives to climate harmful fossil fuel energy sources. SolarGeneration youth are urging their governments to make the right choices.
“Right now my government is pushing for nuclear power plants. But I don’t want nuclear power plants in my country or in other country because it is dangerous and unsafe. It’s not a good choice for the future,” said Ivy Londa, a SolarGeneration member from Indonesia.
Greenpeace is an independent, campaigning organization which uses non-violent, creative confrontation to expose global environment problems, and to force the solutions which are essential to a green and peaceful future.