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Former Soviet President Calls for
Global Solar Fund
May 1, 2006 - renewableenergyaccess.com
Geneva, Switzerland and Washington, DC [RenewableEnergyAccess.com]
Calling on leaders of the world's largest industrialized
nations (G8) to invest in renewable energy and energy
efficiency, former Soviet President Gorbachev marked
the 20th anniversary of the world's largest nuclear
power plant disaster in Chernobyl with a request for
the creation of a $50 billion Global Solar Fund over
10 years.
"The Fund could easily be raised by cutting
subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear energy,
to install solar photovoltaic equipment around
the planet, thereby driving down the price and
creating a mass market for a clean fuel technology."
-- Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet President
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The request was in an "Energy Security" brief sent
with a letter from President Gorbachev, who is Founder
and Chairman of Green Cross International, to heads
of state and leaders of parliaments in the G8 nations
as they prepare for the upcoming G8 Summit in St.
Petersburg, Russia.
"This idea reflects our
vision of a way of helping the energy impoverished
in the developing world, while creating concentrations
of solar energy in cities that could be used to prevent
blackouts, and would result in lower electricity bills,"
said President Gorbachev. "The Fund could easily be
raised by cutting subsidies for fossil fuels and nuclear
energy, to install solar photovoltaic equipment around
the planet, thereby driving down the price and creating
a mass market for a clean fuel technology." "The greatest
energy security challenge facing humanity is the implementation
of clean renewable energy solutions for sustainable
development," said Matt Petersen, President of Global
Green USA and Chair of Green Cross's Energy and Resource
Efficiency Committee. "Leveraging an unprecedented
clean renewable energy and energy efficiency deployment
is the only way to achieve real, lasting energy security."
The recent discussions of nuclear power serving as
a solution to climate change prompted comment from
President Gorbachev: "Nuclear power is neither the
answer to modern energy problems nor a panacea for
climate change challenges. You don't actually solve
problems by finding solutions that create more problems
down the track. Of all the energy options, nuclear
is the most capital intensive to establish, decommissioning
is prohibitively expensive and the financial burden
continues long after the plant is closed." Contrasting
such energy expenditures in this country, Gorbachev
pointed out, "In the U.S., for example, direct subsidies
to nuclear energy amounted to $115 billion between
1947 and 1999 with a further $145 billion in indirect
subsidies. In contrast, subsidies to wind and solar
combined during the same period totaled only $5.5
billion."
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