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"Sustainable Energy Supplies in View of Globalization and Liberalization"

Motion
from the SPD, CDU-CSU, BÜNDNIS 90/DIE GRÜNEN and F.D.P. parliamentary groups

Setting up of a Study Commission on "Sustainable Energy Supplies in View of Globalization and Liberalization".

That the Bundestag decide the following:

The German Bundestag will set up a Study Commission on "Sustainable Energy Supplies in View of Globalization and Liberalization".

I. Background

As we enter the 21st century, energy supply faces new and serious challenges:

• securing a natural basis for survival against a background of an intolerable level of climate change and its consequences,
• achieving structural change towards sustainable development in our industrial societies out of ecological necessity
• coping with global competition for energy reserves
• creating humane living conditions for a world population that continues to expand
• coping with the results of liberalization of energy markets and increased competition in a globalised world and their consequences for competitiveness, innovation capacity, environmental protection and employment.

The field of energy policy and the need for change have already been the subject of extensive research by previous Study Commissions of the German Bundestag and a number of earlier studies. However, the latest developments resulting from globalisation and liberalization have to some extent changed the situation. Against this background and in view of the challenges we face in the medium and long terms, we must agree as quickly as possible on instruments, conditions and specific targets for action, so as to be able to provide advice and recommendations to those responsible for legislating on energy policy.

Any approach to policy in this field has to come up with urgent answers to the medium and long-term challenges resulting from the limited availability of resources and Nature's dwindling capacity to sustain present forms of life at global and regional level. This applies in particular to the Federal Republic of Germany - located as it is at the heart of Europe - in its efforts to achieve prosperity and success on global economic and labour markets.

All goals, strategies, measures and instruments must be based on a policy that is committed to the principle of sustainable development. The UNEP report "GEO 2000", together with reports from the WGBU, identifies the risks and dangers of world-wide economic development: wasteful use of resources in industrial countries and excessive damage to the environment as a result of poverty in developing countries are endangering the economic, ecological and social basis for Mankind's survival in the medium and long term. Industrial countries like Germany have a particular responsibility towards the developing and emerging economies of the world in view of the latter's justifiable claim to adequate economic development and increased prosperity.

The global climate problem, the binding commitments to reduce emissions made by the industrial countries in the Kyoto protocol to the Framework Convention on the Environment and the medium-term commitments already made by the Federal Republic to reduce emissions of climate-changing trace gases as part of the "burden-sharing" process in Europe, require rapid decisions to be made on establishing specific measures, particularly in the field of stationary energy consumption (electricity, heat, process energy) as well as mobility and transport.

Even if supplies of economically retrievable fossil fuels are unlikely to be exhausted in the near future, the real limitation lies in the inability of natural buffers to absorb greenhouse gases. At the same time it is also necessary to take into consideration geopolitical factors related to the high degree of concentration of these energy sources. The economic impact of a scarcity of energy resources also needs to be examined.

For the further development of the national economy, a sustainable policy aimed at ensuring a secure, environmentally compatible and economical energy supply is of crucial importance. The cost of such a sustainable approach should not be viewed in the short-term and in isolation - a long term view that includes any likely external effects is called for. This need is reflected in the increasing importance which large sections of the public attach to an environmentally compatible energy supply.

Liberalization of energy markets in Europe and Germany has radically changed the statutory conditions under which the grid-bound energy industry operates. Competition and the regulation of supply and demand by market forces are intended to improve the efficiency of energy supply. One important question that needs to be asked in this context is what structures and instruments are required to meet sustainability criteria. The structural change this entails will be facilitated and speeded up if it is possible to win a broad degree of support and consensus in parliament and amongst the public at large. And any consideration of how to modify and redirect national policy will also have to keep the European context in mind.

II. Tasks

The German Bundestag has set up a Study Commission on "Sustainable Energy Supplies in View of Globalization and Liberalization". This consists of 13 members of the Bundestag and 13 experts. The SPD parliamentary group has nominated 6 MPs and 6 experts, the CDU/CSU group 4 MPs and 4 experts, and the BÜNDNIS 90/ DIE GRÜNEN, F.D.P. and PDS groups one MP and one expert each. For each member of the Bundestag one alternate can be nominated.

With a view to the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD) IX in 2001 (approval of a UN strategy on "Energy and Sustainable Development") and the "Rio+ 10 conference (2002), the Study Commission aims to develop Germany's contribution towards achieving the sustainability goals formulated at Rio (Agenda 21). The main focus will be on short, medium and long term climate protection goals, in other words the national CO2 reduction goal of 25%, Germany's commitments under international law as part of the Kyoto process and concrete post-Kyoto measures in the EU context to the year 2010 - and also the required reduction of up to 80% in emissions from industrial states by the year 2050. The aim is to identify trends, goals and scope for action at national, European and global level, in particular in the new context of globalisation and liberalization.

On this basis, the main focus for the Commission's deliberations, in addition to the general tasks described above, will be as follows:

• General framework conditions and instruments in the energy industry, taking into account the need for harmonisation of EU energy policy along the lines of aforementioned energy and environmental goals
• Description and analysis of the various options for developing and structuring the energy mix and future energy supply in Germany resulting from climate protection and sustainable development measures in an industrial society - keeping in mind economically viable requirements for change and the relevant risk assessments.

• In terms of ecological effectiveness and economic efficiency, the following five options are to be examined for comparable periods of time:

  • Exhaustion of the short and medium-term scope for improved energy-efficiency (electricity, heat, mobility), taking into account energy services;
  • Possible doubling of the use of renewable energy sources in the context of market liberalization to the year 2010, in line with the goals laid out in the European Commission's White Paper on energy policy;
  • Supplementing of renewable energies by developing and expanding appropriate future-oriented technologies (e.g. fuel cells);
  • Use of combined heat/power generation to achieve the transition to a long-term energy supply based mainly on renewable resources (goal: doubling by 2010 and a 50% share by 2050);
  • The contribution of nuclear energy and further research in this field (e.g. EPR, HTR, pebble bed reactors, nuclear fusion)
  
  
• The development of production locations and employment in the domestic energy sector and the fields of energy efficiency (energy services) and plant and equipment with regard to exports and the world market.
• Analysis of the demands made on environmentally-friendly forms of mobility with regard to using the scope for energy savings, necessary adaptation of infrastructure and/or mobility patterns and the development and investigation of future-oriented technologies (fuels, drive systems, traffic flow management).
• The scope for greater mobilisation of the various players in the energy sector (producers, service providers, consumers) in a bid to meet energy efficiency and climate protection objectives.

An interim report will focus on the challenges of liberalization of energy markets for an efficient, environmentally-friendly energy supply and/or possible measures to correct undesirable developments and tasks facing future, ecologically-oriented markets.

The final report, which will incorporate the results of many existing investigations in this field, will draw up long-term scenarios for future energy supply in Germany and Europe. It will take into account both the global context and European developments (globalisation, liberalization, inequalities). The aim will be to create a reliable basis for further democratic discussion of future energy policy based on systematic and scientific criteria. In order to present these options, it is recommended that an approach be adopted that is based on scenarios demonstrating whether and how the medium and long-term goals as formulated (for 2005, 2010, 2020 and 2050) can be achieved.

Berlin, 15th February 2000

Dr.Peter Struck and parliamentary group
Dr. Wolfgang Schäuble, Michael Glos and parliamentary group
Kerstin Müller (Cologne), Rezzo Schlauch and parliamentary group
Dr. Wolfgang Gerhardt and parliamentary group