At a meeting with Deputy Prime Ministers, Chairman of the Russian Government Dmitry Medvedev, restated the commitment to promote ‘new’ energy again. According to Medvedev, “without due attention to the ‘new’ energy we will be hostages of the existing hydrocarbon model.” It is hard to argue with this, but it is not just outside circumstances but also ‘inner’ strife of market participants that hinder the promotion of the energy alternative in Russia.
The authors of "Outlook for Energy Development in the World and in Russia until 2040" come to the following conclusion: "Russia can no longer live at the expense of the income from hydrocarbon exports. The main task for the next 25 years is radical increase in efficiency of public and corporate governance, including improving energy efficiency of the economy."
Alexander Novak, the Russian Energy Minister, has doubts in feasibility of national plans for reduction of energy consumption. Representatives of Russian NGOs are convinced that the government shall not give up the original plans for energy efficiency - the energy saving potential is huge!
On October, 28 the first in Russia presentation of 5th evaluative report of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was discussed in INTERFAX. That event was organized by Climatic Secretariat of the Russian Social Ecological Union and WWF, Russia.
Mass media all over the world are filled with news that the rate of СО2 in the atmosphere has reached its historical maximum. 97% of global research proves that mankind is to blame for the irreversible climate change, Guardian has reported recently. Environmental NGOs believe that urgent abandonment of fossil fuel in favor of renewable power and energy efficiency can mitigate the consequences of the climate change.
Renewable energy sources will take advantage, despite the fact that their starting base is insufficient. This is the opinion from the Energy Outlook 2030 report prepared by the British Petroleum oil company. Representatives of non-governmental environmental organizations are sure that the nature of consumption and the ratio of energy sources in the global energy sector are changing in such a way that representatives of “traditional” energy can no longer ignore this fact.
In 2011, investments in the renewable energy amounted to the record $257 bln, UN report says. - Renewable energy gets cheaper and cheaper, experts from International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) claim. In Russia share of renewable energy is still less then 1 %.
