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Documentation

Energy - the Targets of Development Policy and the Problems as seen by the Bonn Government

In its annex, the Fifth Report on Development Policy of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany, which is due to be published at the beginning of next year, devotes a few passages to the subject of energy. Since annexes are seldom read with any great care, "gate" has documented its contents as it gives an account of what has been achieved in the past and what is planned for the future.

The German Federal Government's "Policy Paper on German Cooperation with Developing Countries" and the United Nations' Strategy for the Third Development Decade both accord very high priority to the energy sector. The reasons for doing so are: the precarious energy supply situation in the oil-importing countries; and the fuelwood crisis with its consequences for numerous developing countries.

The medium and long-term targets of cooperation with the developing countries in the energy sector are:

1. To meet energy requirements, especially of the rural population; "basic energy requirement" is defined as the energy needed to cater for basic needs;

2. To ensure appropriate economic growth through the adequate provision of energy, especially for agriculture and industry; here? the German Federal Government. takes as its guideline the United Nations' Strategy for the Third Development Decade according to which average economic growth in the developing countries in the eighties should be of an order of between 4 % and 5 %;

3. To ensure continuing development in the long term which according to the German Federal Government, depends on a steady reduction in the backlog of energy demand in the developing countries.

Considering that the investment which would be required to enable the oil-importing countries to double their domestic energy production is estimated to be about US$ 40 billion annually until 1985, and over US$ 50 billion from then until 1990, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany believes that substantial efforts on the part of the developing countries concerned are absolutely essential.

The Federal German Government takes the view that, if the priority targets are to be met, the following will be necessary in the oil-importing developing countries:

1. economical and rational use of energy,
2. increase in energy supplies,
3. substitution of expensive and high-risk sources of energy, especially oil.

To this end, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is ready to help the developing countries in particular in:

1. determining and planning energy potential and energy use,
2. research, development and demonstration of suitable technologies,
3. transferring, adapting and applying nature technologies,
4. establishing and exchange of information on energy technologies between the industrial countries and the developing countries,
5. training experts at all levels and for all operations in the energy sector.

Of the wealth of possible openings for cooperation with the developing countries, the German Federal Government attaches particular importance to:

1. Taking advantage of energy saving potential which, inter alia, can also help to conserve energy reserves;
2. energy planning and exploration of the energy raw material potential;
3. afforestation to ensure minimum fuelwood supplies for the poor sectors of the population in the country and the towns;
4. development and utilisation of fossil fuels if available;
5. development and use of hydroelectric power, primarily from small and very small plants;
6. use of various forms of renewable energy, especially in developing countries with no, or no significant source of other energies.

As a result of the World Economic Summit of 1979, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany is implementing a Special Energy Programme (SEP) designed to promote the utilisation of renewable sources of energy. Cooperation has been extended to cover 25 countries, 10 of them "special focus countries"; a sum of DM 193 million has so far been made available for the Programme.

The Government of the Federal Republic of Germany has approved the Programme of Action of the United Nations' Conference on New and Renewable Sources of Energy of August 1981, and is assisting in its implementation. It also upholds the result of the North-South Summit Conference in Cancun. It believes energy to be the second most important area of cooperation with the developing countries, after food.

Between 1978 and 1981, the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany made available about DM 3.2 billion under technical and financial cooperation with the developing countries. The funds have been used for the following purposes in particular:

- dams (mostly multi-purpose projects) with hydro-power stations, e.g. in Burma, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Morocco, Senegal, Tanzania, Brazil, Guatemala and Honduras,
- conventional power stations, and
- electricity transmission and distribution.

Energy Hearing

A hearing on the subject "Energy Problems in the Third World and Development Policy" was on the agenda of the Development Assistance Committee of the German Bundestag in Bonn on 8 December, 1982. Originally, the hearing had been set for 10 November 1982; due to the change in Government, however, if had to be postponed.

Representatives of ten organisations, including the German Agency for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), were on hand to answer questions put to them by the parliamentarians in that hearing. "gate" will report on it in detail.

The Committee expected the experts to provide information about consumption structures in the energy sectors of various groups of developing countries; future trends; energy potential and its development; and the interdependence of industrial and developing countries. In addition, models and potential solutions to energy problems in Third World countries were to be introduced.

In a recent statement for Parliament, the Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ) has pointed out that - in accordance with the Development Policy Paper of July 1980 - the energy sector is one of those areas of cooperation whose share in overall bilateral development assistance is to be increased. In total, more than DM 3.2 billion from this Ministry's budget and another DM 120 million from the budget of the Ministry of Research and Technology have been disbursed since 1973 for energy projects.