The United Nation’s Rio +20 meeting wrapped last week, resulting in several hundred voluntary commitments from member countries and an ambitious vision for worldwide ‘sustainable development’ in the form of a declaration titled “The Future We Want.” Rio +20 and “The Future We Want” follow the UN’s recently-launched “Sustainable Energy for All” initiative, which aims to provide universal access to modern energy services, double the global rate of improvement in energy efficiency, and double the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix by 2030.
The importance of energy – specifically as a tool for poverty alleviation and resource/ecosystem conservation – has long been emphasized by UN declarations and programs; nonetheless, few measurable actions or clear paths forward have emerged. This seems particularly true when viewed in the context of U.S. energy policy. Arguably, the primary drivers of U.S. energy policy in recent years have been job creation, domestic oil and gas development, and America’s place in the world vis-à-vis energy innovation, which do not necessarily align with UN vision and goals.
Do international programs and declarations provide value to U.S. policy? What are the reasons for and against closer alignment of international and U.S. goals? What factors impede progress on the international level, and adoption of international goals in the U.S.?
The most critical and profound issue in energy policy is how do we get agreement among countries around the world to develop an actionable/binding, effective, long-term strategy to prevent global… Read more »
Your conclusion — “…there will be no international accord and no solution to the problem” — is only partly correct: Decades of history and abundant social/political science demonstrate that the… Read more »