The Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21) convenes international multi-stakeholder leadership to enable a rapid global transition to renewable energy. It promotes appropriate policies that increase the wise use of such energies in developing and industrialized economies, and its Chairman, Mohamed El-Ashry, has worked tirelessly to promote its successes and strengthen the rapid global expansion. So who better to kick-off the issue with an overview of the past 12 months, and look to the future?
Since just a year ago, the world has seen many significant developments that have had an impact – both direct and indirect – on renewable energy. The global economic recession entered a new phase in 2010, marked by massive public finance crises – felt most acutely in Europe – that led several governments to announce incentive cuts for solar energy. Natural gas prices remained low due to advances in technology for extracting gas from shale rock, temporarily reducing the competitiveness of renewable energy.
At the same time, worldwide developments have highlighted the security, economic, and human costs of relying so heavily on fossil and nuclear energy. The three-month long BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico caused extensive damage and continues to affect the economy and welfare of people in the region. The “Arab Spring” of popular unrest has triggered oil-price volatility and added instability to energy markets, while at the same time the global demand for oil is outpacing the capacity for production. And Japan’s Fukushima nuclear catastrophe has led many countries to rethink the role of nuclear energy in providing low-carbon electricity.
