The need for energy knows no boundaries, no class and no race. Whether it is cooking fire in a developing country or a 1,000-horsepower diesel engine powering a modern factory, the need for energy is a basic human necessity. With a burgeoning population now topping 6 billion, traditional finite energy sources are stretched to the limit. The impact of those sources on the environment are becoming increasingly evident, and the global need to promote and develop renewable energy sources has never been greater. To fill the basic needs of the developing world and satisfy the engines of the economy in the developed world, a universal commitment is needed to create and sustain energy sources that are renewable and environmentally friendly.

Many countries, agencies, nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and businesses are willing to make that kind of a commitment, says Reno Harnish, a principal deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. State Department. Harnish was part of multi-agency team that organized the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference (WIREC) 2008 in March.

WIREC is the third in a series of international conferences, the first were held in Bonn, Germany, in 2004 and Beijing in 2005. “The genesis of these conferences came from the renewable energy community, particularly the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE),” Harnish says. “They believed the international community should come together regularly to encourage the adoption of renewable energy.”

ACORE raised the idea of bringing the conference to the United States, Harnish says, and found a number of leaders receptive to the idea. Developing renewable energy resources turned out to be part of many of the policies being pursued by the government. “It fit in well with our climate change policy,” Harnish says. “It fit in well with our energy security policy. That was the genesis of the idea, to advance our goals on climate change, energy security, and sustainable development by promoting the rapid adoption of renewables.” Five or six agencies came together to plan the conference, Harnish adds.

Much of the world was represented at the conference as 113 ministerial level representatives and more than 3,000 other attendees shared their successes, challenges, policies and opportunities for promoting and developing renewable fuels. There were three focal points of discussion during the conference—research and development, market adoption, and finance and rural development, Harnish says. “We felt that an important outcome of WIREC was that it brought together the highest levels of government with the highest levels of business and the NGO community to discuss barriers and suggest solutions for getting over those barriers to renewables adoption,” Harnish says. “But we said there has to be something else: practical, tangible commitments.”

President George W. Bush addressed the conference and reiterated that renewable energy was not only a key part of preserving the environment but also a matter of economic and national security for the countries involved in the conference. “My job, as the president of the country, is to put pro-growth policies in place,” Bush said. “But we're dependent upon oil, and so as our economy grows, it's going to create more demand for oil—same with China, same with India, same with other growing countries. … The dependency upon oil also puts us at the mercy of terrorists. If there's tight supply and demand, all it requires is one terrorist disruption of oil and that price goes even higher. It's in our interests to end our dependency on oil because it—that dependency—presents a challenge to our national security.”

Worldwide Effort
One of the goals of the conference was to continue to build the political momentum and institutional support for renewable fuels around the world. One of the tools to commit governments, organizations and businesses to make significant changes was the pledge process. Nearly 150 pledges to increase the use of renewable fuels were made during and after the conference. “We regard the pledges as the heart of the matter,” Harnish says. “It’s turned out to be a grand success.”

The pledges cover the gamut of renewable resources, from wind and hydropower to biomass and conservation. The commitments made also run the gamut. Businesses and communities pledged to displace their current energy needs with renewables. International finance groups pledged to boost their funding for renewable development projects.

Government agencies committed research and development funding to create new renewable resources. Governments vowed to change the laws in their countries to give renewable energy industries a firm and consistent framework for development. The U.S. government alone made 31 pledges, Harnish says. “You see in the pledges that the United States has in its climate policy that one size does not fit all,” he says. “National circumstances differ around the globe. Feedstocks differ and the level of technology differs. So as we go to tackling the greenhouse gas problem we are very cognizant that the U.S. will propose a plan that involves different mixtures of energy than say, Chile.”

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