OREANDA-NEWS. May 18, 2009. “Mick Jagger is wrong. Time is not on our side,” moderator Nigel Jollands warned the panel on Energy Efficiency and Climate Change at the 2009 Business Forum at the EBRD’s 18th Annual Meeting, reported the press-centre of EBRD.

“But energy efficiency can help buy us time,” he added, kicking off a discussion about how investing in low-carbon technology and waste reduction can stimulate economic growth and competitiveness.

Hot topic
Dr Jollands, an International Energy Agency expert on energy efficiency, noted that the topic had grown in popularity in recent years. Panellist Aimee McKane agreed: “We have been down in the trenches with our night-vision glasses on and now the spotlight is on us.”

Ms McKane, who works for the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the USA and specialises in industrial energy efficiency, said efforts to reduce the sector’s carbon consumption were sometimes hampered by a reluctance to swap tried-and-tested technology for greener alternatives.

Education on green technology needed
“Frequently the paybacks are attractive,” she said. “The issue is mostly risk and risk aversion: engineers don’t have an incentive to change the technology.” She added that educating industry figures on the improved reliability and precision of energy-efficient investments could provide an incentive for change.

Focusing on the EBRD region, economist Petra Opitz said there was huge potential for reducing energy consumption but that politicians needed to identify energy efficiency as a key goal.

Agencies needed
“Perhaps there is still a fear among Russian decision-makers that obligations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions after Kyoto would hamper Russia’s economic development,” said Dr Opitz, who has extensive experience of working in Russia, Ukraine and Central Asia.

She also expressed concern that Russia’s draft law on energy efficiency focused on general policy and lacked specific measures and said there was a need to set up agencies to implement the legislation: “Without agencies responsible for energy efficiency, any good policy would be implemented very slowly.”

Grassroots approach
Vassily Vysokov chairs the supervisory board of Russia’s Center-Invest Bank and is an economist who has written extensively about small and medium-sized enterprises in southern Russia. He advocated a grassroots approach to energy efficiency projects in his country, rather than waiting for government to take the lead. “We must provide energy efficiency projects for very small people in small towns in Russia.”

Red tape
Professor Vysokov also said he was prepared to develop training for municipal personnel working in the field of energy efficiency “to combat those who are putting up barriers”.

Levon Hampartzoumian, CEO of UniCredit Bulbank in Bulgaria, identified red tape, inefficient public administration and lack of comprehension about the nature of energy efficiency projects as barriers to further development in this area.

In conclusion, Nigel Jollands said the EBRD region offered great scope for improvement in the field of energy efficiency but that lack of market infrastructure was a stumbling block. He also called for “long, legal and loud” messages from governments in the region with respect to energy efficiency.