( dpa )- Investment in renewable energy technologies has skyrocketed in recent years, and bolstering the rapidly expanding business sector - widely considered a key to tackling climate change - is the focus of a major international conference this week.
The United States is hosting government ministers from more than 80 countries as well as green-technology companies and non- governmental organizations focused on energy and the environment, who will all have a chance to showcase their talents from Tuesday to Friday at the Washington International Renewable Energy Conference.
It is the third such gathering after similar meetings in 2004 in Bonn and a 2005 follow-up in Beijing. Bonn participants for the first time agreed to an international "action plan" to foster renewables - a series of non-binding commitments put forward by participating countries and businesses.
While Bonn set the stage, the US State Department says this week's gathering "heralds a maturing phase in which scaling-up of renewable energy deployment is the challenge."
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warned in a series of reports last year that governments have about seven years to begin reversing the trend of rising greenhouse-gas emissions, which are blamed for global warming. Many countries are also attracted to renewable energies by the prospect of becoming "energy independent" through homegrown alternatives.
Investment in alternative energy has seen a massive uptick over the last two years. About 71 billion dollars were invested in new renewable capacity in 2007 worldwide, compared to 40 billion dollars in 2005, according to a report by the Renewable Energy Network for the 21st Century, which was created in 2004 to follow up on the Bonn conference's commitments.
US President George W Bush will address the conference Wednesday, and ministers hope to come up with an updated action plan by Thursday, complete with a new set of national pledges.
So far, those pledges have been hard to come by - only Denmark has unveiled a more robust set of clean-energy targets - and organizers are considering a one-month delay in the plan's release to encourage more participants to come forward.
Environmental groups are holding out little hope for concrete results while the Bush administration remains in power. Chris Miller, leader of Greenpeace's US global-warming campaign, said cautioned against expectations of any "meaningful outcomes, given that the host has been at best not helpful" in promoting action against climate change.
It is no surprise that conference organizers "have not made their objectives clear," he said.
US officials say the Washington conference will both be a showcase of progress in renewable-energy technology and a chance for governments to renew their commitments to developing renewables and cutting back on the fossil fuels that produce climate-changing carbon emissions.
The most important part of the conference may not be the ministers' gathering at all. On the sidelines of the government meeting will be a business conference and trade show for companies from around the world to forge connections and promote their own innovations in the field.
"They are kind of the new and innovative and creative infusion in what otherwise could have been a traditional, boring energy conference," said Athena Ballesteros, Asian climate campaigner for Greenpeace International.
Automaker Volvo Group on Wednesday plans to demonstrate a renewable-fuel truck that has no carbon-dioxide emissions, as part of more than 75 side events hosted by businesses and environmental and energy groups.
London-based oil company BP Inc, which pours a higher percentage of its budget into renewables than any of its major competitors - though still only about 1 per cent of capital expenditure - plans to host debates with other business leaders and hold its own side event. BP chief executive Tony Hayward will be the first business leader to address the gathering.
"This (conference) provides just a fantastic opportunity to bring different sectors together," said BP spokeswoman Sarah Howell.