The International Economic Forum of the Americas, also known as the Conférence de Montreal, is an annual gathering of policy makers and business people to discuss the past, present, and future state of the global economy. I attended day two of this year's conference: “Sustainable Development and Innovation”. Beginning with a working breakfast on access to energy, the day focused on a range of sustainability issues, and featured former presidents and prime ministers as well as directors, CEOs and members of various businesses and NGOs . What follows are some thoughts, reactions, and what I found to be some of the more noteworthy points.

I'm going to post each session separately, since they get long. If you have comments, questions, criticisms on the ideas, my take on things, or my writing / blogging style, I'd love to hear them.

Access to Energy Services: the Challenge of Infrastrcture and Sustainable Development

• Arrived late. Didn't miss much in terms of breakfast, just some muffins and cakes by the looks of it. Room is full, no chairs. Laurent Coche is speaking.

• The panel is mostly African, and the continent is featured prominently in the presentation and ensuing discussion.

• Not much to note. Mr. Coche shows a panel of images, which is quite shocking but difficult to reproduce. Images of the same number of people (say 100, for example), traveling along the same city block,

  • First by foot (100 people crowded together in the middle of the street),

  • Then by bus (3 buses in a row)

  • Then by car (100 cars, the street is gridlocked)

• Question period is more interesting:

  • A gentleman with a British accent and wearing a very strange striped suit introduces himself as somehow involved with McGraw-Hill and asks the following question:

    “Given the African environment, is there an opportunity to use Africa to generate energy – wind in the north, solar in the south – for Europe? Or to capitalize on the carbon credit market by selling carbon and sequestration credits?”

    The idea of using Africa as a giant wind/solar farm, or a carbon sink for Europe, despite whatever arguments you can give for development, industrialization or globalization, is just new colonialism. It propagates the very system that has crippled Africa, and follows the same philosophies that have led to the global food crisis. Africans need energy – if they are able to produce it themselves, they would sell it to the world market at wholesale prices, only to have to buy it back at international retail prices which they can't begin to afford. The idea is typical of the short-sighted mindset of so many policy makers today.

  • The panel answers:

    A1: Some development banks, like the BDC, are looking into how to incorporate the carbon market. There has been much discussion about what types of projects might be created to do so, both in the region and internationally. Unfortunately, while the potential exists, very little has been developed.

    A2: The private sector will not fund wind projects alone. Further, they will not get involved without clear and definite regulation, committed public policy, and institutional involvement. It must begin on a government level.

    None of them criticize the idea in any way, which I find shocking.