WIREC 2008 Ministerial Bulletin: A summary report of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008 Page: 1 of 14
View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
WIREC 2008 Ministerial Bulletin
A summary report of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008
Published by the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)sr I
ONLINE AT HTTP://WWW.IISD.CA/YMB/WIREC2008/
VOLUME 95, No. 8, TUESDAY, 11 MARCH 2008- - F- -...W
SUMMARY OF WIREC 2008 MINISTERIAL:
4-6 MARCH 2008
The Washington International Renewable Energy
Conference (WIREC 2008) convened from 4-6 March
2008, at the Washington, DC Convention Center in the US.
WIREC 2008 consisted of a Ministerial Meeting, a business
conference, a trade show exhibition and side events. More
than 3000 participants from 118 countries registered for the
Ministerial Meeting, including approximately 100 ministerial
representatives. Over 4000 individuals registered to participate
in the business conference, trade show and side events. This
Bulletin reports on the Ministerial Meeting events.
George W. Bush, President of the United States of America,
addressed the WIREC 2008 Ministerial Meeting on Wednesday
morning, 5 March. Participants also attended over 25 plenary
and workshop sessions to discuss four themes: market adoption
and finance; agriculture, forestry and rural development; state
and local authorities; and research and development (R&D).
At the close of WIREC 2008, over 100 pledges had been
submitted for the Washington International Action Program, a
compilation of domestic and international pledges to accelerate
the global uptake of renewable energy. The Renewable Energy
Network for the 21st Century (REN21) will support WIREC
2008 by following up on the implementation of the pledges,
which will be accepted until 4 April 2008. India offered to host
the next International Renewable Energy Conference in early
2010.
A BRIEF HISTORY OF MULTILATERAL PROCESSES ON
RENEWABLE ENERGY
During the fuel crisis of the 1970s, many countries began
exploring alternative sources of energy. The international
community's first major attempt to develop a strategy for the
use of alternative fuels was the 1981 UN General Assembly
Resolution A/RES/36/193 on the outcomes of the UN
Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy, which
included a "Nairobi Programme of Action for the Development
and Utilization of New and Renewable Sources of Energy."
However, it was only following the 1992 UN Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED), in Rio de Janeiro,
Brazil, that renewable energy issues featured more prominently
on the international environment and development agenda.
UN CONFERENCES AND SUMMITS: At UNCED,
delegates adopted Agenda 21, an action plan for implementing
sustainable development. Agenda 21 addresses sustainablepL
_ 1
-
US President George W. Bush addressed WIREC 2008 participants
energy, among others, in Chapter 9, on protecting the
atmosphere, which notes that the need to control atmospheric
emissions of greenhouse gases and other substances will
increasingly need to rely on environmentally sound energy
systems, particularly new and renewable sources of energy. The
chapter also addresses, inter alia, the need for R&D, the transfer
and use of technologies, and measures to overcome barriers to
the use of renewables.
In the years following UNCED, several UN conferences
and summits addressed renewable energy and sustainable
development issues in their outcome documents. These included
the Global Conference on Sustainable Development in Small
Island Developing States (1994), International Conference on
IN THIS ISSUE
A Brief History of Multilateral Processes on Renewable
E nergy .........................................1
WIREC 2008 Ministerial Report ...................3
Tuesday, 4 March ............................ 3
Wednesday, 5 March .......................6
Thursday, 6 March .......................... 11
Upcoming Meetings ............................. 14The WIREC 2008 Ministerial Bulletin is a publication of the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) <info@iisd.ca>, publishers of the Earth
Negotiations Bulletin C <enb@iisd.org>. This issue was written and edited by Douglas Bushey, Twig Johnson, Ph.D., Miquel Mufioz, Ph.D., and Lynn Wagner, Ph.D.
The Digital Editor is Dan Birchall. The Editor is Mark Schulman <mark@iisd.org>. The Director of IISD Reporting Services is Langston James "Kimo" Goree VI
<kimo@iisd.org>. Funding for coverage of this meeting has been provided by the U.S. Department of State. IISD can be contacted at 161 Portage Avenue East, 6th
Floor, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0Y4, Canada; tel: +1-204-958-7700; fax: +1-204-958-7710. The opinions expressed in the Bulletin are those of the authors and do
not necessarily reflect the views of IISD. Excerpts from the Bulletin may be used in other publications with appropriate academic citation. Electronic versions of the
Bulletin are sent to e-mail distribution lists (in HTML and PDF formats) and can be found on the Linkages WWW-server at <http://www.iisd.ca/>. For information on
the Bulletin, including requests to provide reporting services, contact the Director of IISD Reporting Services at <kimo@iisd.org>, +1-646-536-7556 or 300 East 56th
St., 11A, New York, NY 10022, USA.0
ir
- ..i q
,0!g
_ . .. .. r
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Schulman, Mark. WIREC 2008 Ministerial Bulletin: A summary report of the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference 2008, periodical, April 11, 2008; New York, NY 10022, USA.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc11946/m1/1/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; .