How can governments and industry win public support for new low-carbon technologies?

26 April 2011, Comment Visions

As a start, lumping together all low-carbon technologies is not the most advisable approach to win public support for new, low-carbon technologies.

As a start, lumping together all low-carbon technologies is not the most advisable approach to win public support for new, low-carbon technologies.

Wind turbines and solar panels, for instance, cannot be grouped together with carbon capture and storage (CCS). While the operation and benefits of the first two are well known, there is still much to learn about the costs, feasibility and environmental impacts of CCS. The associated environmental risks differ and warrant separate public discussions. For instance the potential impacts of CCS are not timebound because the CO2 must be kept undergound indefinitely.

Arguing that a lack of public support to develop new renewable technologies like wind or solar power is often used as a political ruse by authorities to mask unwillingness or incapacity to take decisive action.

For example in central and eastern Europe (CEE), green investments are often framed as luxury spending that these economies cannot yet afford. There is little public awareness about the benefits decentralised renewable energy can have, not just for environmental protection, but also for the reduction of energy poverty, the creation of green jobs and the strengthening of local economies and innovation.

A robust public information campaign about the benefits of such investments is the first step authorities need to take to garner support for the renewables sector. The European Commission has estimated that current EU policies on climate, including development of renewable energy, are expected to create 1.4 million jobs by 2020. Benefits from energy savings can amount to 1000 euros per household annually in the EU. Moreover, energy savings and job creation are powerful arguments in times of economic downturn.

While decision-makers are willing to make ambitious statements in favour of green technologies, they are less keen to take concrete actions in their support. In CEE, EU structural and cohesion funds that could be used to co-finance green investments are poorly absorbed because climate mitigation projects are not prioritized by governments and EU funds managing authorities continue to have low capacities to implement such projects.

National governments need to increase structural and cohesion fund allocations for energy efficiency and renewable energy measures. Unfortunately at the moment precisely the opposite is happening – governments in Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland are attempting to shift funds from areas including environmental programmes towards carbon-intensive road infrastructure.

While CEE countries have the potential for new renewables development, complicated legislation or even the lack thereof has not ensured the long-term business environment conducive to developing these types of projects. Not enough investments are made to strenghten and reconstruct national grids in order to accomodate renewables. Neglecting these priorities, not public opposition, is the main barrier for CEE countries’ to unlock their potential for renewable resource development.

And at the EU level, a mismatch between rhetoric and reality continues to confuse the public. While EU leaders declare support for decarbonising the European economy, European money from public sources does not always follow. Rather than focus on renewables and energy efficiency, EU money, under the guise of energy security, centres on building new infrastructure to import fossil fuels to Europe for 40 years and more. At the same time, European public banks like the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development continue to support the development of new coal plants in CEE, in spite of insitutional objectives to further EU policy priorities.

The most basic element of garnering public support by national and European decision-makers, whether for a low-carbon economy or any other objective, is to be transparent and consistent.