Ten years ago, we attended our first energy conference hosted by the
Chinese government in Beijing. To make sure that our message was heard,
we assembled our best material on the benefits of interconnections and
delivered it directly to the Ministry of Energy. Later that year, our
paper on "Linking
renewable energy resources" was translated into Chinese
and featured in the premier issue of China Power magazine. It appears
the message is getting heard.
Today, the Chinese are building a nationwide
energy grid to efficiently distribute electricity to the world's largest
population. Their resource-rich western region is being tied to the
energy-hungry population centers in the east. Additionally, Beijing hosted
the 2nd World Conference on Renewable Energies last year and
made commitments to accelerate their solar, wind and biomass programs.
It is critical to encourage China and India to grow sustainably
— as the consequences drift far beyond political boundaries and threaten
us all.
In a related discussion, 2000 business leaders meeting today at the World
Economic Forum identified their five primary issues facing our world.
The GENI Initiative offers a partial solution to three of them: sustainable
development for China and India, addressing climate change, and narrowing
the gap between the rich and poor nations.
The interconnection of electric grids between nations with an emphasis
on tapping renewable energy will ameliorate many of the major challenges
that we face. The question we ask ourselves every day: how can we
accelerate this process in a world that remains addicted to fossil fuels?
We need your help in making this case, and getting to the leadership who
can drive this transition. There is no time to waste — so
please share this message with your colleagues, media, and government
leaders.
