G-7/Denver Summit of the Eight

A United Strategy for Peace and Sustainable Development

Dear Mr. President:

As you convene with the world's economic powers next week in Denver, we offer an economic development strategy that will enhance all economies, promote more international cooperation and help reduce climate changing emissions. I will be presenting this global solution at The Other Economic Summit (TOES 97) in Denver on June 21st -- and I invite one of your advisers to hear this compelling plan.

The foundation for this proposal comes from the World GameTM simulation of Dr. Buckminster Fuller, who asked the most globally encompassing question:

How do we provide a decent living standard for everyone and sustain the environment for the long term?

The premier solution is to electrically link the renewable energy resources around the world. It's a technology that exists today and is being built piece-by-piece around the world. An alignment of the G-7 leaders would accelerate the benefits listed below.

As history, GENI is a US tax-exempt organization conducting research and education into the benefits of interconnecting electrical networks between regions, with special focus on tapping renewable energy resources. In the attached literature, you will find extensive corroboration for the expansion of power grids.

Several recent examples serve to illustrate the opportunity for accelerating the linkage of electrical power networks between all nations--

• Two months after the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, East and West Germany initiated the interconnection of the electric power systems between the two countries. Enormous economic and environmental benefits have already accrued, even after 40 years of staring at each other through a gun barrel.
• As reported in Newsweek, September 1993 -- immediately after the peace accords were signed between PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat and Prime Minister Yitsak Rabin, economic integration was now possible:
  • With peace at hand, some ambitious development projects no longer look so crazy. Beyond Israel and the occupied territories, some other neighbors could benefit,too. A few of the Palestinians fondest dreams: POWER GRIDS: Interlocking electrical grid could save Israelis and Arabs millions of dollars.
• Unnoticed by most people in the past few months, unlikely neighbors are pursuing electrical energy ties: Iran and Turkey, Iran and Armenia, Chile and Argentina, Pakistan and India. Something is going on!

A simple transmission line can act as a first link that will benefit all neighbors in a region. The distances involved are relatively short, and the resources and technology exist throughout the G-7 manufacturers and utilities to engineer the project. As Walter Hickel stated, Why war? Why not big projects?

The benefits of system integration are well documented:

• load sharing
• emergency back-up
• peak power savings
• deferral of additional capacity requirements
• increased system stability
• improved frequency and voltage control
• ability to retire environmentally unsound or older generation
• and in every case, electrical interties are a physical demonstration of cooperation, and serve as an example for further mutually advantageous projects.

Specifically, first world economies can assist their neighbors' development by selling excess capacity (which fluxuates hourly and seasonally) -- while assisting in the development of additional generation sources for mutual benefit. This is a thought-out strategy to actually meet IPCC emission targets at the Kyoto conference!

Every G-7 nation has outstanding expertise in this field. The export potential is enormous, especially to India, China and Southeast Asian regions. And if China doesn't develop an alternative energy plan soon, the entire world may pay the price.

I do hope you can have an assistant listen to The GRID Initiative at TOES 97 on June 21st. Please contact us, if GENI could be of service in future discussions.

Sincerely,

Peter Meisen

President

p.s. Why is this so urgent? Just a few months ago, the UNDP released their annual report on the world's health. Secretary General Kofi Annan stated that 100 nations are worse off today than 15 years ago. Over 2 billion people earn less than $2 per day. What more evidence do you need to consider a global approach?

Copies sent to all G-7 participants:

United States - President Bill Clinton

Secretary of State Madeleine Albright

Canada - Prime Minister Jean Chretien

Minister for International Trade Arthur Eggleton

France - President Jacques Chirac

Minister of Foreign Affairs Hubert Vedrine

Germany - Chancellor Helmut Kohl

Minister of Foreign Affairs Klaus Kinkel

Italy - Prime Minister Romano Prodi

Minister of Foreign Affairs Lamberto Dini

Japan - Prime Minister Ryutaro Hashimoto

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yukihiko Ikeda

United Kingdom - Prime Minister Tony Blair

Foreign Minister Robin Cook

Russia - President Boris Yeltsin

Minister of Foreign Affairs Yevgeny Primakov

European Union - Commission President Jacques Santer

Council President Willem Kok

Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Yves-Thibault de Silguy

enclosures: GENI Newsletter 1997 focusing on the peace potential:

What's being said by the experts

Linking renewable energy resources around the world: A Compelling global strategy, reprint from the Sustainable Energy Journal

Global Power, The electric Hypergrid from the New Scientist, UK

Why war? Why not big projects? by Walter Hickel

Africa-Europe Electrical Interconnections and Prospects of Worldwide Interconnections by Eng. M. Abaza, Egypt's Minister of Energy

A light seen round the world, Global and Mail, Canada

Global Energy Grid: A Solution to World ProblemsRussian reprint

Reprint after the Earth Summit from Nippon Kenzai Shinbum, Japan

GENI Newsletter 1994 focusing on Economic Conversion