I am African. And here we are in Africa a continent where over 500 million people have no electricity to provide the basic energy services which electricity provides.
Greenpeace and The Body Shop teamed up about a year ago to
create theChoose Positive Energy Campaign, launched in January of
this year. Thedemand: that governments vastly expand renewable
energy for peopleacross the world - the industrialised governments
should expand theirrenewable energy supplies and all governments
should commit toproviding small-scale renewable solutions like
solar and wind power,small-scale hydro, and biomass, to the world's
poorest.
The total cost of getting renewable energy to the world's
poorest 2billion people is estimated to be less than half of the
$500+ billionthat is likely to be invested over the next decade in
fossil fuel powerstations and infrastructure in poorer countries.
For just USD 1.4billion, clean renewable energy could be supplied
to 1 million schoolsand health care centres, serving some 600
million people.
Around the world, people added their voices and signatures to
the call, either at the Choose Positive Energy website or on
petitions at Body Shop stores in 27 countries.
The mural will be a permanent fixture in a part of
centralJohannesburg identified with protests against Apartheid and
now anemerging multi-cultural artistic hub of the city.
Painted by a team of local community artists, the mural
incorporatesa selection of the 1.5 million signatures and allows
members of thepublic to add their own signatures - so it remains a
living statementof intent.
To the music of Baaba Maal and the words of UK Environment
ministerMichael Meecher, people gathered in front of three huge
buildingsenigmatically sheathed in hessian coverings. Baaba Maal
led the entiregathering to the edges of the mural and once everyone
was assembled, heloosened the cloth. The striking art work
underneath represents thetransition from 'negative' fossil fuel
energy to cleaner 'positive'renewable/sustainable energy sources
and the represents that hopes andaspirations of millions of people
for a clean and sustainable future.
"... It is not just the poorest who are suffering in their every
daylives in order to survive. The poorest are the ones who will
feel themajor impacts of the unfolding climate crisis being brought
on byglobal warming. This is not a catastrophe waiting to hit - it
isalready hitting - and it is going to get worse," said Baaba
Maal.
Gordon Roddick, co-chair of The Body Shop said at the launch of
theinitiave in London last January: "The use of oil, coal and gas
fuelsare quite literally choking our world to death. It seems
madness tokeep using polluting fossil fuels when clean green
alternatives areavailable. We have a moral obligation to achieve
sustainable energy notjust for ourselves, but particularly for
those people in the developingworld, who are currently off-grid. We
have to take a stand. Renewableenergy sources offer us the best
chance we have to avoid a potentialclimate catastrophe."
Two billion people -- one-third of us on the planet -- have
noaccess to electricity for basic needs such as lighting or
cooking.Getting people the clean and reliable energy necessary for
essentialneeds such as clean water, health care facilities, heating
and lightingis one of the most pressing problems facing humanity
today.
"The statistics are numbers but each number is a human life,"
said Baaba Maal.
Global warming, caused by burning
fossilfuels, threatens people's lives around the world. While the
world'spoorest people use only a fraction of the world's oil, coal
and gas,they are likely to suffer most from extreme weather events
such asfloods and storms if no action is taken. Rising sea levels
threaten toengulf entire countries in the Indian and Pacific
oceans. If we aregoing to stop the earth's climate spinning out of
control, most of theworld's reserves of fossil fuels such as coal,
oil and gas cannot beused for energy and must stay underground. We
must make the switch topositive energy at home and globally.