From 1 to 4 June, 2004, Germany hosted the International Conference for Renewable Energies Bonn 2004, as announced by Chancellor Gerhard Schr�der at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in September 2002 in Johannesburg.

The conference � renewables 2004 � charted the way towards an expansion of renewable energies worldwide, responding to the call of the Johannesburg summit for the global development of renewable energy. It also kept up the momentum generated by the coalition of like-minded countries for promotion of renewable energies (known as the Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition, JREC). 3600 participants met in Bonn, among them official governmental delegations including energy, environmental and development ministers, representatives of the United Nations and other international and non-governmental organisations, civil society and the private sector.

renewables 2004 addressed these central issues: How can the proportion of renewable energies used in industrialised and developing countries be substantially increased, and how can their advantages and potential be better used? The conference concentrated in particular on the following themes:
 

• Formation of enabling political framework conditions allowing the market development of renewable energies
• Increase in private and public financing in order to secure reliable demand for renewable energies
• Human and institutional capacity building, and coordination and intensification of research and development.