From perestroika to an appeal on petroleum

Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev is in San Antonio pushing solar and renewable energy as building blocks for the economy of the future.

Gorbachev, who is in town to speak to the International Petrochemical Conference, said he hopes his remarks will help prod leaders at the Group of 20 summit in London this week, when world leaders convene to discuss the global economic crisis.

“It’s not just a matter of rescuing the world’s economy — there is more at stake,” he told a group of reporters through a translator at the Hyatt Regency San Antonio on Monday. “We must not expect the outcome of this crisis will be the replicating of the same old model of the economy we had for 50 years.”

Gorbachev, who founded Green Cross International in 1993, called for a new and sustainable world economy that focuses more on renewable energy and fighting climate change and less on fossil fuels. He called the economic crisis an opportunity to help reshape the future.

“If we base the efforts for a healthy economy on this effort to reduce hydrocarbons, this would lay the groundwork for a sustainable economy and sustainable growth in the future,” he said. “The environment has its own laws that cannot be violated. ... If we do, then we the world will be losers.”

This is a message Gorbachev will take to the petrochemical conference today, where he is a paid speaker. He said he would challenge the industry to help with the transition to a low-carbon economy.

“The oil sector is of great importance,” Gorbachev said. “I would like to talk to them not as though they were opponents but as partners in combating climate change. ... I hope that the oil business here in this country will not act too late (and) that they will understand their responsibility in changing the (economic) model. I hope they will also understand the enormous market opportunity.”

Despite the serious global challenges to the economy and the environment, Gorbachev said, he is optimistic that the United States’ seeming change in attitude toward international agreements can help forge meaningful change.

The former world leader, who famously opened up the Soviet Union in the 1980s under his policies of glasnost and perestroika, had kind words for the fledgling Obama administration. But he was critical of the Bush administration’s “rather dismissive attitude toward Russia” and policies on climate change.

“You might remember the Bush administration even created a special scientific committee to try to refute the science of climate change,” he said. “That’s a unique type of leadership, but that didn’t work.”

In answering a question, Gorbachev also characterized Reaganomics — the deregulated economic system championed by President Reagan — as a policy that “results in overconsumption and hyperprofits at any cost without regard to social or environmental needs.”

Gorbachev’s Green Cross International has released a report card that grades countries for their efforts and success in installing solar power. The amount of solar power as well as financial and regulatory incentives figured in the grading system.

Germany ranked at the top with an A- and an estimated 5,722 megawatts of solar power installed by the end of last year. The United States tied as runner up, garnering a C+ along with Italy, Spain and France. America ranks third in total solar power, with 1,265 megawatts installed by the end of 2008. Spain is second with about 3,000 megawatts.

Mysanantonio.com // 31.03.2009