From 1 to 4 June, 2004, Germany hosted the International Conference for
Renewable Energies Bonn 2004, as announced by Chancellor Gerhard Schröder 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.
