Much ado about (nothing) very little.

Maybe Shakespeare was prophetic when he wrote his play "Much ado about nothing", because this seems to be what happened in Japan last week when the G8-leaders were deciding upon energy and climate. Almost deciding, at least. A careful reading of the communiqué shows that there are some openings in the text (item 24) for the leadership to act upon and that coincides with the view expressed by Tony Blair earlier. There is also a recognition of the importance of energy efficiency to achieve energy security (item 13). If we were to be nice, we could say that awareness is there, but political will is not.

The scorecards look bleak

A more careful study of what the countries concerned actually do has been published by Allianz and WWF in a scorecard format that is very revealing. The study ranks G8 country performances and gives background information on the +5 (Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, India and China) in a homogenous format.

Just as with the summit meeting, one can say that there a few positive things, but not many. France may find a reason to celebrate the quatorze Juillet by the fact that they rank second, but will probably not enjoy being after UK!

The IEA has published their compiled reports and shopping-lists, of which some could be turned into action if they only find resonance with the leadership of the world.

The European Parliament have, with a sort of mild criticism, endorsed the SET-plan (Strategic Energy Technology) asking for the missing elements (such as energy efficiency) to be made a functioning part of the play.

So, there might be hope. Shakespeare turned his “nothing” into a lasting success. Could we be inspired by that?