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Report | Doc. 11918 | 18 May 2009
Renewable energies and the environment
(Former) Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs
Summary
The current energy system is less and less able to meet present energy needs and to solve the problems associated with greenhouse gas emissions. The system is based on finite fossil resources and globalised economic structures (monopolies). These two factors have created energy dependencies which are already today causing significant negative impacts for many national economies. In addition, many people are suffering from health problems as a result of environmental pollution.
It is therefore necessary to act quickly to achieve a radical change towards the use of renewable energies, to reduce energy consumption and to enhance technological efficiency. Renewable energies are the only alternative to the established energy industry, acceptable in environmental, social and economic terms. This report contains comprehensive recommendations as to how such a changeover can be achieved as rapidly as possible.
A. Draft recommendation
(open)1. The current energy system, characterised by excessive
consumption of fossil fuels, is increasingly unable to solve the
problems of energy supply. The structures of conventional energy
supply are increasingly at odds with society’s needs for accessible
and clean energy.
2. The Parliamentary Assembly would therefore like to see measures
for sustainable restructuring of the energy system taken as rapidly
as possible and energy generation brought back into line with the
requirements of lasting energy security and environmental protection.
3. This restructuring of the energy system should be aimed at
making renewable energies rapidly and comprehensively available.
The use of solar-, wind- and hydro-power and geothermal energy has
no limits in real terms and does not create any consumption costs.
In addition, if these energies are used in a sustainable fashion,
they do not trigger any damaging environmental effects. The same
applies to biomass, provided it is cultivated in a sustainable way
and produced without competition with food needs. Renewable energies
also mean long-term energy security, since they allow for domestic
sources to be used. In addition, transnational networks and supply
structures are only needed to a small degree.
4. One of the decisive economic and social factors, which makes
the use of renewable energies vital, is the fact that they can be
used on a decentralised basis. A large number of small and medium-sized
installations will, together, provide the energy needed for a whole
society. The decentralised structure of the system, involving many
different players, will allow a lively market to develop. A system
based on renewable energies therefore offers an opportunity to break
down the current monopoly structures on the energy markets.
5. The increasing energy-related crises – the climate crisis,
the energy dependency crisis, the poverty crisis, nuclear threats,
the water crisis and the health crisis – demonstrate clearly that
rapid action is needed if change is to be shaped politically and
socially. Any further delay would only mean that the crises over
energy and the conflicts over distribution of the remaining resources,
with their associated social costs, would continue to escalate until
they become impossible to manage.
6. The Assembly believes that measures such as tax exemptions,
tax reductions or favourable feed-in tariffs should be taken in
order to make renewable energy installations as profitable as possible,
without negative impacts on the environment. Measures should also
be taken to ensure that the construction of renewable energy plants
is not subject to – often excessively lengthy – bureaucratic procedures.
The construction of such plants should be regarded as a priority.
7. Indeed, such plants make it possible to avoid the social costs
of the energy crisis and compensate for the subsidies and privileges
that have been granted to conventional energies for decades, which
led to their dominant market position. The only alternative to this
privileged position for renewables would be full internalisation
of the external costs of conventional energies in energy prices.
The principles of environmental accounting should be applied to
take into account the full cost of environmental damage caused by conventional
non-renewable energy systems. In this respect, the Assembly recalls
its Recommendation 1653 (2004) on environmental accounting as a
sustainable development tool.
8. The Assembly also believes that, to ensure the success of
all these measures, consideration must be given to the setting up
of an agency with a task to promote worldwide the use of renewable
energies. This agency could, inter alia,
provide advice on the implementation of national renewable energy
policies and assistance with technology transfer in the field of
renewable energies, thus enhancing skills and knowledge on renewable
energies. It could also collect all existing, sound scientific information.
9. The Assembly therefore asks the Committee of Ministers to
call on Council of Europe member states to:
9.1. take the necessary measures for profitable large-scale
use of renewable energies (tax exemptions, tax reductions or favourable
feed-in tariffs);
9.2. organise the energy markets of the Council of Europe member
states in a non-discriminatory fashion and take the necessary measures
to guarantee all energy suppliers equal access to distribution networks;
9.3. ensure that networks, regardless of their owners, are
absolutely neutral in the conditions applicable to energy suppliers;
9.4. grant tax relief or tax exemptions on agrofuels in order
to ensure their competitiveness with fossil fuels in the transition
period until broad market penetration has been achieved, thus giving
a fresh impetus to the agricultural sector;
9.5. give clear priorities in territorial planning law, to
allow the setting aside of locations for the generation of renewable
energies, whatever the kind of energy which will be used;
9.6. seek to ensure that public and private buildings, especially
those under construction, are adapted to the use of renewable energies
and set up programmes for existing private buildings to support
the use of renewable energies;
9.7. use fossil energies as effectively as possible during
the transition period;
9.8. modernise conventional power plants in order to allow
cogeneration, which would offer the prospect of a 100% gain in energy
efficiency;
9.9. set up an International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
with a task to promote worldwide the use of renewable energies;
9.10. run large-scale information and advertising campaigns
on renewable energies in order to overcome people’s reservations
and encourage private investors to invest in renewable energies.
B. Explanatory memorandum by Mr Jean-François Le Grand, rapporteur
(open)1. Time to act
1. The current energy system has two predetermined breaking
points, the finiteness of conventional fossil and nuclear fuel resources,
and a growing number of crises in the world that are related to
energy. At some point in the foreseeable future, these breaking
points will cause a situation to arise in which the energy system in
its current form would no longer be able to function. To ensure
that this will not happen it will be necessary to effect an immediate
changeover to renewable energies. This is a challenge of historical
importance that the member states and their governments need to
address.
2. The problems that will have to be dealt with in connection
with carrying out this changeover are small in comparison to the
conflicts that are inherent in the current energy system and are
bound to grow more pronounced as time goes on. The nations and governments
of the world still have a choice, but continued waiting and delaying
will eventually result in this choice being taken out of their hands
by worsening energy crises. Waiting until then to initiate an energy
policy changeover would make it necessary for a much greater effort
and could have enormous political and social repercussions.
2. The finiteness of conventional energy resources
3. Mankind is living on a dwindling supply of resources.
Conventional energy reserves that accumulated over many millions
of years are being used up at an increasingly rapid pace. A child
who is born today is likely to witness a situation within his or
her lifetime in which our civilisation will have to do without oil,
gas or uranium, since these resources will have been exhausted by
then. The end of conventional fuel resources will necessarily mean
the end of today’s methods of generating power. When this point
will be reached is, essentially, undisputed. Based on known fuel
reserves that it would be technically and economically feasible to
exploit it can be estimated approximately how long these reserves
will last, assuming energy demand remains at its current level.
In the case of oil we are looking at about forty years, in the case
of natural gas sixty-five years, in the case of coal one hundred
and seventy years, and in the case of uranium perhaps another fifty years.
The growing worldwide demand for energy means that depletion of
resources will occur even earlier.
3. The world’s worst energy-related crises
3.1. Climate crisis
4. The latest assessment report by the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change merely confirmed what has long been known.
The average temperature on the earth’s surface has risen by 0.74°C
since the end of the 19th century. According to scientific models
it will continue to rise by another 1.8 to 4°C by the year 2100. The
consequence of this will be climate change on a scale larger than
anything seen over the past 10 000 years. Extreme weather events,
such as severe storms, floods and droughts will occur more frequently than
is already the case today. One of the most serious consequences
will doubtless be the resultant rise in sea level. During the 20th
century scientists measured a rise in average sea level of between
10 and 20 centimetres. It is predicted that by the year 2100 there
will be a further rise in sea level of between 18 and 59 centimetres.
This will make large areas of land uninhabitable and threaten water
supplies for billions of people.
5. The cause of all these negative changes is clear. They have
been brought about first and foremost by the burning of conventional
fuels to obtain energy. In this context it becomes clear that the
economic costs of climate change are higher than the costs of a
changeover to renewable energies.
3.2. Dependency crisis
6. In the case of fossil fuels more and more countries
are becoming dependent on ever fewer sources in fewer countries.
The majority of European countries are dependent on imports to cover
more than half of their energy needs. It is obvious that there is
a potential here for crisis in the future. Growing dependency on
energy imports means critical political dependency. In such a situation,
foreign, security and human rights policy will become a political
football for energy policy interests, and international tensions,
or even wars, could break out over access to the remaining resources.
3.3. Poverty crisis
7. Developing countries without fossil fuel resources
of their own, that is, the majority of them, have to pay the same
prices for fuel imports as everyone else on the world market, even
though they have an average per capita gross domestic product level
that is considerably less than 10% of the average GDP figure for
the Western industrial nations. Based on their national incomes
the developing countries have a financial burden that is, de facto,
ten times greater and more when it comes to paying for their fuel
imports. At the same time, due to a lack of networked energy supply
infrastructures, they are more strongly dependent on oil supplies
that are not provided via pipelines than is the case with industrialised
countries. The consequences of energy poverty are excessive exploitation
of biomass, desertification, rural exodus into already crowded slums
on the peripheries of major cities, destruction of social structures,
and a breakdown of political order that could lead to international
conflicts.
3.4. Nuclear crisis
8. Nuclear waste needs to be stored safely for 100 000
years. No one can provide guarantees that far into the future. The
inherent uncertainty associated with final storage sites for nuclear
waste is obvious, as is the fact that we are leaving behind a difficult
legacy for future generations.
9. But even the day-to-day operation of nuclear power plants
involves unconscionable risks. The ability to control nuclear energy
and to keep it safe for civilian use has been recurrently called
into question by accidents of serious and even catastrophic proportions.
Today these dangers are compounded by the threat of terrorism which
could some day target nuclear power plants.
3.5. Water crisis
10. The water crisis being seen in many regions of the
world, to an increasing extent also in the northern hemisphere,
is in large measure a result of our use of nuclear and fossil fuels
to generate power. In connection with the operation of nuclear and
coal-fired power plants around 3 cubic metres of water are evaporated
for every megawatt hour of electricity generated. A modern nuclear
power plant can generate around 8 million megawatt hours of electricity
per year. This puts the amount of water consumed at around 24 million
cubic metres. It is easy to understand that this level of water
consumption in connection with the generation of electricity could
have a disruptive effect on regional water cycles.
11. In regions where water is scarce the water needs of power
plants enter into direct competition with the water needs of the
human population. This begins with the production of fossil fuels.
Water is needed, for instance, to wash coal. In oil fields water
is pumped underground to create the pressure needed to push the
oil up to the surface.
3.6. Health crisis
12. Scientific authors have come to the conclusion that
around a fourth of the people in the world have health problems
of some kind as a result of emissions produced by the burning of
fossil fuels, including asthma and other bronchial disorders. The
present energy system has a negative influence on human health and
quality of life and as a consequence of this is also responsible
for increased health care costs.
13. Indoor emissions, such as occur when people burn wood in houses
and huts, are particularly dangerous to human health. The World
Health Organization attributes a large proportion of the premature
deaths seen in Africa to emissions of this kind.
4. Alternatives
14. It follows from the above-indicated crises that the
alternative to the present energy system is to be found in emission-free
energy resources.
4.1. Is nuclear energy an emission-free alternative?
15. Nuclear energy is frequently named as a climate-friendly
option for the generation of electrical energy. It is often argued
that the operation of nuclear power plants does not result in the
production of greenhouse gas emissions. However, this argument fails
to take into account the fact that the use of nuclear energy does, indeed,
result in the production of greenhouse gas emissions, given that
the use of fossil fuels is required in the course of mining uranium
ore, refining uranium, and producing uranium fuel rods. As such,
nuclear energy is an indirect cause of greenhouse gas emissions
produced in the various phases of uranium processing. The world’s
uranium reserves are declining and this has already made it necessary
to mine lower-grade ores. Studies indicate that over the next twenty
to thirty years a kilowatt hour of electricity from a nuclear power
plant will have a larger carbon footprint than the same amount of
electricity generated by a gas-fired power plant. It is already
the case today that nuclear power results in considerably more carbon
dioxide emissions per kilowatt hour of electricity than is the case
for wind energy. As such, nuclear energy is not a sustainable alternative.
4.2. Is clean coal technology an alternative?
16. There has been discussion of so-called “clean coal”
power stations, in which the carbon dioxide would be removed from
the flue gases produced and stored permanently. However, this process
would result in considerable efficiency losses for the power plants
in question, ranging between 20% and 40%. In addition to this, it
has not yet been determined how carbon dioxide can be stored securely
and how much this would cost. This technology is still far from
being developed to a level of perfection that would enable it to
find widespread use. In addition, this energy option is likely to
be more expensive than the use of renewable energies and to achieve
less in terms of reducing CO2 than the use of fossil fuels in cogeneration
systems.
4.3. Renewable energies
4.3.1. Efficiency and emissions
17. A modern wind turbine will produce up to 100 times
more energy than was needed for its construction and operation over
a thirty-year period. In the case of solar panels this factor is
currently 10, but is rapidly increasing as a result of further technological
advances. Thus, the efficiency of these systems is guaranteed. The
carbon dioxide emissions associated with wind energy are well below
those of all types of fossil fuels, viewed over the entire length
of the production chain. Biomass energy is not completely climate-neutral
in every instance, but it is nonetheless better in this regard than
fossil fuels. The prerequisite for ensuring this is that as much
biomass must be grown again as was used for the purpose of producing
energy.
4.3.2. Rapid implementation
18. The potentials of the various renewable energy forms
can be mobilised rapidly when used in decentralised form. Wind turbines,
solar arrays, or water-driven power plants can be planned and constructed much
more quickly than large-scale thermal power plants. This is particularly
true of nuclear power plants, given the inordinate amount of time
needed for their planning and construction. Expanding the use of renewable
energies to produce electricity will require international technology
transfers. This, in turn, will require a considerable increase in
the training of specialists to operate the systems put in place.
4.3.3. Land needs
19. The use of renewable energies will require a certain
amount of land use, for instance to provide locations for the construction
of wind farms or fields for growing biomass. The use of some locations
for the placement of wind turbines may provoke protests from the
local population and they may want to assert landscape protection
rights. However, this claim must be compared with the impact on
landscapes caused by conventional energy producers as well as the
consequences of emissions for the environment, which rank higher
in the hierarchy of dangers. In the case of land needs for biomass
production there is a fear of competition with land needs for food
crop production. There are also predictions that this will lead
to the creation of large-scale monocultures. Forms of biomass production
are needed that will rule out these dangers. And this is possible.
4.3.4. Energy mix and storage of solar and wind energy
20. An energy mix is needed to be able to make use of
the full potentials offered by renewable energies. Initially a mix
of conventional and renewable energies is needed, in which the percentage
of renewable energies would gradually rise and that of conventional
energies would gradually fall. The objective, in the end, would
be to have a mutually complementary mix consisting of all forms
of renewable energy, including a storage system for solar and wind
power, given that electricity production from these sources is subject
to fluctuation.
4.3.5. Costs
21. The full costs of conventional power production must
be compared with those for power produced with renewable energies.
A comparison of these full costs must include any subsidies paid
as well as the various system costs. With the exception of bioenergy,
renewable energies do not entail fuel costs and infrastructure costs
are low for the most part. In the case of conventional energies,
there are rising fuel costs and follow-on costs to worry about.
Renewable energies involve only engineering costs for the most part
and the latter will decline as system production volumes increase.
Conventional energy costs, by contrast, will continue to rise. Mobilisation
of renewable energies will trigger investments and thus a long wave
cycle, moving the economy forward into a new energy structure. In
contrast to conventional energies, where the economic and social
costs are rising inexorably, the economic and social costs for renewable
energies are constantly decreasing, meaning that they present an
opportunity for a sustained economic upswing.
Reporting committee: Committee on the Environment, Agriculture and Local and Regional Affairs
Reference to committee: Doc. 11154, Reference 3312 of 16 March 2007 and Doc. 11197, Reference 3332 of 16 April 2007
Draft recommendation adopted unanimously by the committee on 30 April 2009
Members of the committee: Mr Alan Meale (Chairperson), Mrs Maria Manuela de Melo (1st Vice-Chairperson), Mr Juha Korkeaoja (2nd Vice-Chairperson), Mr Cezar Florin Preda (3rd Vice-Chairperson), Mr Remigijus Ačas, Mr Ruhi Açikgöz, Mr Artsruni Aghajanyan, Mr Miloš Aligrudić, Mr Alejandro Alonso Nùñez (alternate: Mr Gabino Puche Rodriguez Acosta), Mr Gerolf Annemans, Mr Miguel Arias Cañete (alternate: Mr Pedro María Azpiazu Uriarte), Mr Alexander Babakov, Mrs Guðginnz S. Bjarnadóttir, Mr Ivan Brajović, Mrs Elvira Cortajarena Iturrioz, Mr Veleriu Cosarciuc, Mr Vladimiro Crisafulli, Mr Taulant Dedja, Mr Hubert Deittert, Mr Karl Donabauer (alternate: Mr Alexander van der Bellen), Mr Miljenko Dorić, Mr Gianpaolo Dozzo, Mr Tomasz Dudziński, Mr József Ékes, Mr Savo Erić, Mr Bill Etherington, Mr Nigel Evans, Mr Joseph Falzon, Mr Ivàn Farkas, Mr Relu Fenechiu (alternate: Mr Ionut-Marian Stroe), Ms Eva Garcia Pastor, Mr Zahari Georgiev, Mr Peter Götz, Mr Rafael Huseynov, Mr Jean Huss, Mr Fazail Ibrahimli, Mr Ivan Ivanov, Mr Igor Ivanovski, Mr Bjørn Jacobsen, Mrs Danuta Jazłowiecka, Mr Stanisław Kalemba, Mr Guiorgui Kandelaki (alternate: Mr Paata Davitia), Mr Haluk Koç, Mr Dominique Le Mèner (alternate: Mr Jean-François Le Grand), Mr Anastosios Liaskos, Mr François Loncle (alternate: Mrs Maryvonne Blondin), Mr Aleksei Lotman, Mrs Kerstin Lundgren, Mr Theo Maissen, Mr Yevhen Marmazov, Mr Bernard Marquet, Mr José Mendes Bota, Mr Peter Mitterrer, Mr Pier Marino Mularoni, Mr Adrian Năstase, Mr Pasquale Nessa, Mr Tomislav Nikolić, Mrs Carina Ohlsson (alternate: Mr Kent Olsson), Mr Joe O’Reilly, Mr Germinal Peiro (alternate: Mr Alain Cousin), Mr Ivan Popescu, Mr René Rouquet, Mrs Anta Rugāte, Mr Giacento Russo, Mr Fidias Sarikas, Mr Leander Schädler, Mr Herman Scheer, Mr Mykola Shershun, Mr Hans Kristian Skibby, Mr Ladislav Skopal, Mr Rainder Steenblock, Mr Valerij Sudarenkov, Mr Vilmos Szabo, Mr Vyacheslav Timchenko, Mr Bruno Tobback, Mr Nikolay Tulaev, Mr Tomas Ulehla, Mr Mustafa Ünal, Mr Henk van Gerven (alternate: Mr Paul Lempens), Mr Peter Verlič (alternate: Mr Jakob Presečnik), Mr Rudolf Vis, Mr Harm Evert Waalkens, Mr Hansjörg Walter (alternate: Mrs Francine John-Calame), Mrs Roudoula Zissi
NB: The names of those members present at the meeting are printed in bold
Secretariat to the committee: Mrs Nollinger, Mr Torcătoriu and Mrs Karanjac