Tiempo Climate Newswatch

The World Bank has approved US$297 million in loans to Morocco for the Ouarzazate Concentrated Solar Power Plant Project. "During a time of transformation in North Africa, this solar project could advance the potential of the technology, create many new jobs across the region, assist the European Union to meet its low-carbon energy targets, and deepen economic and energy integration in the Mediterranean. That's a multiple winner," said World Bank Group president Robert Zoellick. The 500MW solar complex will be among the largest Desertec Industrial Initiative, which plans to construct a network of solar and wind farms across North Africa and the Middle East. The aim is to provide 15 per cent of Europe's electricity supply by 2050. Construction of the first phase of a 500MW solar farm, using both CSP and photovoltaic panels, is scheduled to start next year. Concentrated solar power systems use parabolic mirrors to focus sunlight onto a small area, using the heat to drive steam turbines and generate electricity.

The World Bank has warned that tough decisions face the negotiators at the Durban climate summit, which starts November 28th. "The stakes are high. This is a decade when action is absolutely central and yet it's also a decade in which obviously the economic conditions are not conducive to breakthrough, if you like," said Andrew Steer, World Bank special envoy on climate change.

Alongside the future of the Kyoto Protocol, Steer cites finance as the big issue for Durban. The World Bank has been approached by over 130 nations for help in responding to climate change. "Climate change is already threatening development progress. Already today, we're seeing the impacts of climate change in several of our client countries," he said. Steer wants Durban to agree on a process by which countries, in the near future, sit down and ask themselves: Are we doing enough?

China could play a critical role at the Durban climate summit, according to some commentators. "My sense is that if Durban fails it would be due to the lack of United States political will to deliver and if it succeeds it would be due to China's extra efforts," said Jennifer Morgan at the World Resources Institute in the United States.

China is undertaking record investment in renewable energy technology and values European expertise. "We need to focus on the green sector, and in this regard, Europe has the talent and the knowledge," Zhang Yangsheng from the Institute of Foreign Economy, National Development and Reform Commission, in Beijing said recently. "I don't exclude the European Union and China and other emerging economies making this strategic partnership for this climate issue and the United States being isolated," commented Jo Leinen, chair of the environment committee in the European Parliament.