Hermann Scheer Promotes Real Opportunities and Economic Benefits of Renewable Energies

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Hermann Scheer is well known for his pioneering role in promoting the global expansion of renewable energies.

(© dpa - Report)

Hermann Scheer is a member of German Parliament, president of EUROSOLAR, and chairperson of the World Council for Renewable Energy. On a recent visit to Washington, DC, he spoke to Germany.info about renewable energy as a solution to the global economic crisis and about his vision for IRENA, the newly founded International Renewable Energy Agency.

Scheer was in the US to receive the 2009 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit at the University of Delaware. The medal and a cash award of $50,000 is awarded every two years to an individual who has made significant pioneering contributions to the promotion of solar energy as an alternate source of energy. The award is the latest in a long string of prizes recognizing Hermann Scheer’s role in promoting the global expansion of renewable energies. He received the Alternative Nobel Prize in Stockholm in 1999 and was named Hero for the Green Century by Time magazine in 2002. 

Germany.info: You’ve just been awarded the 2009 Karl Böer Solar Energy Medal of Merit by the University of Delaware. In your acceptance speech you said "our world is at a turning point." What did you mean by that?

Hermann Scheer: We are faced with three world crises. Today all speak about the financial crisis. This is a global economic crisis, no doubt. And at the same time we have the climate crisis. And at the same time we have the resources crisis. And it will become impossible to overcome these crises with separate measures… . The answer is obviously that we must channel investments through a new financial order into the "real" economy. The main instrument for that is a shift to renewable energies. That means the motto of our time is to channel investments to the ‘real’ economy, focused on the shift from conventional energies to renewables. Then we will have a strong strategy to solve three problems in one strategy. And this is a turning point because we are in a race against time.

But the coal and gas lobby are still very so strong, and renewable energies have an uphill struggle to be accepted and used. You’ve said all conventional supplies should be replaced with renewables – how realistic do you think that is?

To postpone this is a most unrealistic position, because the term realism must become defined as the way to overcome real problems. And if someone defines realism as a way to make the situation worse than today, that has nothing to do with realism - that’s a bad illusion. So you can say self-proclaimed realists are totally unrealistic because they don’t have an answer. This conventional energy lobby represents the strongest part of the world economy. It has more influence to political decisions than all other interest groups. They try since decades to denounce renewable energies and to block all initiatives, and this became the failure of the century. So now we are in a race against time. Each lost year is a bad year. And each postponement of the shift to renewable energies is not better for the economy, it's worse for the economy. But the conventional interest groups discuss exactly the contrary. They say we have to postpone it because of economic reasons. But this is wrong. The biggest increasing economic burden is to go on with conventional energies.

There has been a shift in conversation here in the US since the election of President Obama but there are still many climate sceptics. How do you see changes happening regarding attitudes towards the climate and energy debate in the US?

There are a lot of traditional standpoints, and not only in the US. The traditional standpoints here are more aggressively outspoken than in Europe. You can say the discusison here is more open, but the traditional standpoints exist, and they are the result of a wrong energy discussion since decades. They are influenced by the energy interest groups and by the energy science. The conventional energy specialists are a part of the problem, a very big part of the problem, because they did not understand the meaning of renewable energies. They speak about markets and at the same time they lie, because we don’t have a market system. We have a highly monopolized and oligopolized energy supply structure world wide. And the (conventional energy) was highly subsidized over decades. Coal subsidies. Nuclear subsidies. The total of the world wide conventional subsidies is annually, up until now, $500 billion! And then they say after receiving all these subsidies over decades, “renewables should compete with us on the market,” and yet they control the market. It is an impertinent lie.

Germany has a lot of expertise to offer in the field of renewable energy. What does Germany need to do to show how things can be, without telling other countries what to do?

What Germany has to do is to go on with its renewable energy policy, and not to lose courage, because the existing success is a practical example in itself. It’s a practical leadership. But practical leadership is not enough… . I speak with scientific basics and with political basics and this is very rare. That’s my speciality. And therefore I know from my own experience the meaning of spritual leadership. Spiritual leadership has nothing to do with giving orders to others, but encouraging them to see the structures, the present conditions with other eyes than before. This is spiritual leadership.

Your leadership has resulted in the new International Renewable Energy Agency, IRENA, which has 79 members now. What's your vision for IRENA?

The vision is that IRENA very soon becomes a rolemodel for renewable energies like the International Atomic Energy Agency plays a role for atomic energy. This is a kind of leveling the playing field in international institutions. Its an organization which should help governments by giving adequate political consultancy to develop policies tailored to their economic and geographical conditions, policies for the renewable energy introduction, and with a perspective for a general shift. To show the real opportunities and to motivate them to see the economic benefits and not only the additional costs. One of the main mental barriers is the argument that it costs too much. The right view is that it creates so many macro-economic benefits in each country where it happens, that the argument that it would be an economic burden is totally wrong. The best practical example of this is the renewable energy act in Germany. It was conceptualized from this basic idea – I know this very well because I was the originator of the principles of this law.

The other point is to overcome the lack of information. IRENA must supply an information service, always updated, about the state of the development and its cost and its applications of a wide range of renewable energies. This will lead the science and renewable energies to a higher level, it will make investements much easier, it will enable people to distinguish between wrong and right investments.   

The third element is to help the governments to build human man power. Because of the ignorance over decades most countries… have a lack of educated people who are familiar with this technology and the way to apply it.

Can IRENA succeed in this if the US isn't a member?

I am sure that America will become a member because this is a logical subsequence of all what President Obama says. He is the most forceful voice for renewable energies now. Under all governors in the world he is the most forceful voice and with a lot of credibilty. Therefore, it’s a logical consequence that America will join and I hope it will happen very soon, and that this will help the US and will help IRENA.