Forum unveils global smart grid, clean-energy initiatives

Representatives from more than 20 countries are meeting in Washington, DC, today for the US government’s first-ever Clean Energy Ministerial. As the event kicked off this morning, three new international energy-saving and efficiency initiatives were announced: the Super-Efficient Appliance Development initiative, the Global Superior Energy Performance Partnership and the International Smart Grid Action Network.

Hosted by US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, a Nobel Prize-winning physicist, the gathering was organised to find ways to accelerate the world’s transition to clean-energy technologies.

“(T)oday we’re launching a global energy efficiency challenge,” Chu said in his opening remarks. “This initiative includes appliances, buildings, vehicles and the smart grid. All these things can transform the way we use and save energy.”

In addition to the global initiatives, Chu also announced today that the Department of Energy has set a new policy in which, wherever it makes economic sense, agency buildings with flat roofs due for replacement with be replaced with white surfaces that reduce cooling costs and reflect sunlight back into space. (The programme includes flat roofs only to avoid aesthetic complaints from those who don’t like light-coloured roofs.) Chu said the policy also aims to encourage other government agencies to pursue similar strategies.

Following a meeting of government delegations on Monday, the Clean Energy Ministerial continues today with several panel discussions featuring government ministers, corporate CEOs and other leading thinkers in clean energy. The discussions will focus on such topics as energy efficiency and the smart grid, clean energy supply and energy access.

Among the countries invited to participate are Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, the European Commission, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, China, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the UK. Together, these nations represent 70 per cent of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, 80 per cent of global gross domestic product and 80 per cent of the world market for clean-energy technologies.

US Energy Secretary Steven Chu, the host of the meeting, later announced one initiative — lighter-colored paint on the roof of the Energy Department headquarters along with other agency buildings outside of Washington.

He said the project, to begin this summer, would better cool buildings and reflect more of the sun’s heat, leading to thousands of dollars in annual savings on air-conditioning.

“Cool roofs are one of the quickest and lowest cost ways we can reduce our global carbon emissions and begin the hard work of slowing climate change,” Chu said, adding that he would recommend that other US departments follow suit.

Delegates said the two-day meeting was likely to announce joint initiatives, although it was unclear how specific they would be.

One area of discussions will be on how to develop a cleaner form of coal, which makes up more than a quarter of the global energy supply and is politically sensitive in the United States and China, the top two polluters.

The clean energy meeting, which Chu expected to be the first of several, is an offshoot of the US-led Major Economies Forum, which brings key nations together to seek progress on fighting climate change.

Negotiations on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol, whose requirements for nations to cut emissions run out at the end of 2012, have been hamstrung by disputes over how much to demand of both developed and emerging economies.

The countries taking part in the clean energy talks are Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Russia, South Korea, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United States.

The European Union is also participating, along with a number of international organizations.

The Clean Energy Ministerial is being launched as an annual event, with future gatherings set to be held next year in the United Arab Emirates and in the United Kingdom in 2012.