Durban: What now?

Advertorial - One of these strange new “English” words that entered my native Dutch. A column that tries to sell you something. Well, as it is an eceee summer study (and a new one!), I think I’m allowed to do so.

What’s the thing? We had Durban, and politicians did what they do best: They saved their faces. This instead of saving the planet, the real reason they flew into South Africa. The final declaration, and this is my own personal opinion, should be put into the recycle bin to show they can do at least one thing right.

I had to be in South Africa recently, and got the feeling the Climate Summits are growing to the size of the Olympic Games. They have their own logo of the organising city, over 10.000 participants and lots of journalists.

The people I spoke to were proud they were going to have their summit. Not as exciting as the World Championship Soccer, but close.

As I stated, in my opinion the whole event was a failure, with the exception of the proud South African organisation of the event.

The Dutch newspaper “Trouw” mentioned our national contribution. The delegation of the Netherlands has diminished the last years: 70 in Copenhagen, 30 in Cancún and now 12 in Durban. The smallest of the EU, now even smaller than Luxemburg.

The excuses mentioned by deputy minister of environment Atsma not to save the planet aren’t worthwhile to repeat. They’re the usual mix of topics that sound nice to the electorate and, at the same time avoid a pledge to make a difference.

One interesting line he did mention: “Let the enterprises do the job”.

As we all know the “enterprises” is not a coherent entity. Illegal waste dumping seems to be one of the fastest growing activities of organised crime, and it is hardly those people we expect to do the job. But then there are the “good guys”:

Part of the industry has come to the realisation that a life-cycle approach, reducing feedstock and energy use, is not only good for the company and its profits, but also helps saving the earth.

This insight hasn’t come over night. It’s been a growing awareness for years now. And it doesn’t limit itself to some local grocery stores. A number of multinationals are working in a structured way to become completely green in a couple of years.

They can afford to make long term plans that prepare them for a competitive future in a world where feedstock will be expensive and low energetic recycling will be the cornerstone of survival for the company. The CEO and board members of those companies have a much longer professional “life-expectancy” than the 4 to 8 years we grant our politicians. So if they really want a sustainable future, they have a much better chance of achieving it than mediocre politicians running for re-election.

Still, I disagree with our deputy minister when he states that enterprises will do the job. The fact is we’ve passed the point where we can even hope to find a single silver bullet solution. The only road is a portfolio approach where everybody realises they have to contribute to the transformation towards a sustainable society both alone and in collaboration. And they have to accept that there will be no equal shares, as parties are too diverse.

Now here is what we at eceee do best. Bringing parties together to discuss technical and institutional options and challenge each other to implement these to the best of our abilities.

Some industrial sectors have gained an average energy efficiency of 2% a year for a numbers of years now, clearly documented in programmes like the Dutch Long Term Agreement.

That’s a challenging figure and can maybe even improve if we are able to correct some market barriers and imperfections that need leadership of our politicians. The beauty of it is that actions necessary to do this can be defined within the “usual” political lifespan of our leaders.

Getting back to the ad of the advertorial: a column is not a place for well defined studies and robust solutions. Papers at the summer study are. So grab your chance, submit and be present at the first eceee summer study on energy efficiency in industry in the Netherlands in September 2012.

The views expressed in this column are those of the columnist and do not necessarily reflect the views of eceee or any of its members.