The sky is a dull grey. For three days now the people in Morropón in northwestern Peru have not had any sun. “This year it has been particularly cold and always cloudy,” says Jorge Jimenez. The weather used to be totally different. He has farmed his fields for more than 30 years, long enough to know that “Temperatures are rising and fluctuating much more than they used to.” That is making it increasingly difficult to plant the right crops. Today Jimenez is no longer able to judge whether it will rain a lot or just a little. Additionally, he is also registering more pests than in the past. The reason is very clear to the Peruvian farmer: “It’s climate change.” Jorge Jimenez is not alone in making these observations. Hundreds of millions of farmers around the globe are noticing how the interaction between climate, precipitation, plants and animals is changing.
Jorge Jimenez lives with his family in a house without electricity and he doesn’t have a car. The difference between Jimenez’s lifestyle and that of an inhabitant of an industrialized country is measured in tonnes: Peruvians are responsible for CO2 emissions of one tonne per inhabitant, the figure in industrialized countries is easily ten to twenty times that. However, if global temperatures are not to rise by more than two degrees Celsius, these emissions will have to be reduced to two tonnes per person by 2050. That can only be successfully achieved if attention is focused on their most important source: the use of fossil fuels.
Primarily, that has to be achieved by the industrialized countries. However, the developing and emerging countries should also take measures to ensure that their energy consumption does not rise dramatically. For that purpose they also require capital and know-how from the industrialized countries. Germany is supporting this process in a variety of ways. For some years now climate protection has been a key area of German development policy. Since the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg Germany’s commitment has been increased – above all, in the fields of renewable energies and energy efficiency. In 2009, the Federal Government is investing roughly one billion euros in climate protection projects worldwide under the framework of development cooperation. It is providing technological support, usually through the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), and financial assistance, through Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW). When combined with the loans provided as part of Germany’s financial development effort, total public development cooperation spending on climate protection measures adds up to significantly more than two billion euros in 2009. The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is supporting projects in the field of renewable energies and energy efficiency in 50 countries.
Since 2008, however, the Federal Environment Ministry has also had 120 million euros at its disposal from the auctioning of emissions certificates for investment in developing and emerging countries. The Federal Economics Ministry has also established an export initiative that supports German companies in marketing their products. In the energy and climate sector, however, it is not only products “made in Germany” that are in demand, but also and above all expertise in areas in which Germany leads the world – in planning and methodology, in production strategies and legislation. This includes, for example, Germany’s Renewable Energies Act (EEG) and public-private partnership (PPP) projects, in other words, joint projects organized by development organizations and German businesses. The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), an arrangement set up under the Kyoto Protocol, is also playing an increasing role. Germany is supporting many countries in issuing emissions certificates.
In all, there are 4 key areas of cooperation: basic energy supply, transport, renewable energies and energy efficiency
Basic Energy Supply
A total of 1.6 billion people still have no access to modern energy and almost half of the planet’s population cook their meals on open fires or inefficient stoves. In many African countries 95% of the rural population are dependent on biomass, in India the figure is 87% and in China 55%. The effects of cooking are very underrated. The smoke is extremely poisonous and causes the deaths of more than 1.5 million people a year. Furthermore, the burning of biomass is by no means climate-neutral: the negative impact on the climate is sometimes greater than that of fossil fuels. In India, for example, smoking stoves are responsible for 42% of the country’s entire soot emissions.
That is why the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has commissioned the GTZ with promoting the distribution of efficient and clean stoves in many countries. This is not expensive. In Uganda, for example, partner organizations train professional oven builders who make clay ovens out of grass, water and earth. Although the building materials are cheap, the design is state-of-the-art. One of these ovens costs just one to two euros to make. Yet it does not produce smoke and requires up to 60% less firewood. There are now almost half a million of these ovens in Uganda alone.
Transport
The transportation of goods and passengers is responsible for roughly one quarter of the world’s CO2 emissions. These emissions are even set to increase by 140% by the year 2050 – with the largest growth in the southern hemisphere. As a result, governments and industry have high hopes of electric vehicles. However, western-style individual transport is rarely the solution. “Intelligent regional and transport planning in large conurbations would enable us to reduce emissions very much more than electric cars,” says Armin Wagner, GTZ transport expert. That is why he believes primarily public and non-motorized transport strategies should be supported, which often clashes with the view of the car as a status symbol. Additionally, knowledge and modern ideas of transport planning are frequently lacking in planning ministries.
That is why the GTZ has developed its method sourcebooks. Using funds from the Environment Ministry, for example, it is supporting the development of future-oriented transport systems in the Ukraine. Germany is active in South Africa, too, where, following the example of Bogota, Columbia, a bus transport system is to be introduced that works like an underground train system – at much lower cost. Separate bus lanes, air-conditioned buses, clearly defined stops and the purchase of tickets before travel provide a fast, punctual and convenient form of public transport in Bogota. The number of passengers is increasing, while individual transport is declining along with CO2 emissions.
Energy Efficiency
The energy conversion rate of modern coal-fired power plants can reach 50%, while many older power plants do not manage more than 20 to 30%. That has dramatic consequences: raising the energy efficiency of a conventional coal-fired power plant in Germany by just one percentage point saves 16,000 tonnes of coal and reduces CO2 emissions by 43,000 tonnes. “Investments in energy efficiency are by far the most economical way of reducing CO2 on a lasting basis,” says Bernhard Zymla, head of the energy and transport department at the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ).
Germany wants to tap this enormous potential in cooperation with partner countries. Many routes lead to the desired goal. In India, for example, parliament passed energy conservation legislation in 2001 that obliged the country’s 5,000 largest energy consumers, Indian Railways and the owners of larger commercial premises to achieve significant results in this area. The Indo-German Energy Programme (IGEN) contributed to this plan and its implementation and, for example, supports the introduction of energy labels. The IGEN programme trains energy managers, optimizes thermal power stations and provides courses on managing CDM projects for institutions and specialists.
In China, Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) uses funds from the Environment Ministry’s climate protection initiative to grant loans that enable businesses to implement energy-saving measures. This is not only a matter of financing. “Above all, the Chinese side is very interested in the wide-ranging experience gained in the climate protection programmes the KfW established in Germany. That is where we advise our Chinese partners,” says Christian Calov of the KfW.
Renewable Energies
The German environment and development cooperation ministries also support developing and threshold countries in tapping wind, hydro, solar, geothermal and biomass energy as sources of power. Take the example of Egypt. The country has access to enormous renewable energy potential, a total of 30,000 megawatts in all. So far only 365 megawatts has been tapped, but this figure is set to rise to 7,200 megawatts by 2020. In May 2009 the Egyptian parliament agreed the construction of a 200 megawatt wind farm on the Red Sea coast. The project will be financed by the European Investment Bank (EIB) and the Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW).
German efforts around the globe lay the foundations for sustainable energy sectors in many developing and emerging countries. These investments reduce CO2 emissions. Even more important is the fact that technical and financial assistance help innovations to break through faster. “Development cooperation funds give us an effective lever that opens the door to several times as much private investment,” says Bernhard Zymla of the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ). He cites the example of the TERNA programme, whose name stands for Technical Expertise for Renewable Energy Application.
Under the programme GTZ staff and their national partners identify suitable wind sites, consult on necessary energy policy conditions and develop support measures in order to initiate investment in new wind farms. The resulting follow-up investments are considerable. The TERNA programme alone is already responsible for the investment of 780 million euros, with which wind turbines with a capacity of 580 megawatts are being planned and built.
