CREDIT CRUNCH: A DISASTER FOR THE ENVIRONMENT TOO?

Investments in sustainable energy are under threat now that the major market players are shifting their focus to the short term. The plan by German energy producer E.ON to build a second coal-fired power plant near Rotterdam has everything to do with the low price of coal. If the credit crunch and relatively cheap fossil fuels lead to the construction of traditional power plants, it's the environment that will pay the price.

Clean technology and sustainable energy production are matters for the long term. Businesses and organisations active in the field of sustainability know this all too well. It is hardly surprising, therefore, that environmentally aware Dutch banks such as Triodos and ASN barely seem to have been affected by the credit crunch at all.

Nor should it raise any eyebrows that German wind-energy company RWE unveiled its plans for two giant offshore wind parks in the North Sea on 6 October, the very day that the Belgian-Dutch rescue of the Fortis banking and insurance group confirmed that the global economic storm had made landfall in the Netherlands.

"A company like RWE wasn't born yesterday," says Peter van Vliet, who in his capacity as editor-in-chief of sustainability website duurzaamnieuws.nl "keeps his finger on the green pulse". The billions invested in those wind parks at sea aren't about to blow away either, they're for the long term. read more (radionetherlands.nl)

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October 20, 2008