“To the atmosphere, a tonne of carbon saved from more efficient fossil fuel use or sequestration is just as good as a tonne saved by renewable energy," Campbell told delegates attending the UN's Commission for Sustainable Development.
"The key question is which will be cheaper for any given situation."
Campbell focused on the efforts of many international organisations to alleviate poverty and create sustainable economic growth, adding that these goals remained inextricably linked to increased energy dependency.
The challenge, Campbell said, was to ensure development and climate change issues were treated as a “twin challenge” requiring a hybrid solution.
“Renewable energy – such as wind, solar, hydrogen and geothermal – will play an increasingly important part in the energy mix over time,” he said.
However, Campbell said renewables would not allow the international community to provide energy for economic development and meet greenhouse targets within the timeframe established in the UN’s Millennium Development Goals.
“Fossil fuels – coal, natural gas and oil – will remain the basis of the world’s energy supply for the medium term. That is the reality that we face. To face this reality is not defeatist or anti-renewables – it is practical reality."
Campbell once again said clean coal technology and methods such as carbon geosequestration were likely to achieve better results in reducing net greenhouse gas emissions.
“The renewables industry and its promoters should not be the enemies of the fossil fuel industry.
Increasingly, the solutions to our historic development and environmental challenge will be in hybrids – combining renewable energy technologies with fossil fuels to improve efficiency,” Campbell said.
Attempts to change the nature of the global energy market could also destabilise economies and governments, hindering progress in the attempts to alleviate global poverty, according to Campbell.
“Access to energy is essential for economic growth. And access to energy requires solid national governance arrangements in order to attract private sector investment and assure donor confidence,” Campbell said.
Sustainable development can only occur with high quality governance, markets based on secure property rights, transparency and accountability, according to Campbell.
"The elimination of corruption is paramount. The multi-billion dollar investment required across the globe to achieve clean development and breakthroughs on climate change will only be obtained when these prerequisites are achieved.”
