The international “green economy” is already considered to be £3.2 trillion annually and in the UK more than 900,000 people are employed in the “environmental and low carbon” market. Today, renewable energy sources account for 13% of the world’s primary energy supply. The share of renewable energies for electricity generation is 18%, while their contribution to heat supply is around 24%, to a large extent accounted for by traditional uses such as collected firewood. About 80% of the primary energy supply today still comes from fossil fuels.

The CBC’s policy paper is part of the Commonwealth Business Council’s (CBC) initiative to address the energy challenge that the world is facing now. Energy is not only a concern for developing countries, but also an increasingly pressing challenge for all countries, who must balance the necessity of current energy supply with future demands and limitations along the huge possibilities provided by new and renewable energy technology.

Renewable Energy has been a focus of the CBC’s programme and we hosted the first Power Summit in London in February 2011. At the 2009 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, the Commonwealth Heads of Government committed themselves to “work to facilitate and enable the transition to low‐emission economies”.