Wheeler said that a Clean Technology Fund is vital to addressing global climate change, but only if it is designed to achieve rapid reductions in the cost of zero-carbon electricity. He concluded with three recommendations.
* Congress should not agree to provide American taxpayer support for the CTF as it is currently proposed. Instead, Congress should instruct the U.S. Treasury to inform World Bank management that U.S. support will only be forthcoming if the proposal is revised to ensure strategic use of the CTF to make zero-emissions renewable energy cost-competitive with energy from fossil fuels.
* To do this, the CTF must focus on renewables that have the potential to be cost-competitive within a few years, and exclude projects that merely improve fossil-fuel combustion efficiency. In particular, the CTF should exclude all proposals for coal-fired power.
* The revised proposal must include a commitment by the World Bank to adopt carbon accounting as rapidly as possible, certainly no later than within a year of CTF authorization and before any funds are actually disbursed. Without carbon accounting, the World Bank cannot select the most cost-effective projects, track progress on emissions reduction, or fulfill the Clean Technology Fund's mandate of helping developing countries bridge the gap between dirty and clean technology.
The other witnesses -- Brent Blackwelder, president, Friends of the Earth (FOE); Jacob Werksman, program director at the World Resources Institute (WRI); and Andrew Deutz, director of International Institutions at The Nature Conservancy (TNC) -- raised similar concerns over the World Bank's financing of fossil fuels. Blackwelder and Werksman also both expressed support for prioritizing zero-carbon energy production in future projects. On the eve of the hearing, FOE joined 120 environmental groups from around the world in a statement opposing the World Bank's proposal (read the civil society statement).
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