International Council for Sustainable Energy

This article is part of the Climate project of Spinwatch.

The International Council for Sustainable Energy (ICSE) was established in December 2007 as an alliance of the European (e5), United Kingdom (UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy) and United States (Business Council for Sustainable Energy)- Business Councils for Sustainable Energy and the Australian Clean Energy Council, making it a powerful lobby group.

According to its website :

Our mission is to provide a cohesive and credible voice for the global sustainable energy industry in international climate change and sustainable development discussions.

Together we represent more than 500 companies with a commercial interest in the expansion of global sustainable energy and energy efficiency markets. These companies are active in investing substantial capital to meet the intersecting challenges of climate change, energy security and ensuring adequate warmth for vulnerable groups.

Through a range of activities, the ICSE seeks to influence international negotiations on sustainable energy and climate change issues. In addition, individual Councils have active programmes of engagement at a domestic scale.

The ICSE is based at Grosvenor Gardens House, housed and run by the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy. The UKBCSE has links to the nuclear industry and Carbon Capture and Storage companies, and wields considerable power in the UK and Europe.

Activities

The ICSE was an observer NGO party to the COP15 summit, sharing a representative with the UK Business Council for Sustainable Energy (Pamela Rudoplh).

At the summit it hosted a large number of side events such as U.S. Centre Side Event – 'The Development Agenda for Clean Energy and Transfer of Technologies' in partnership with United States Agency for International Development (USAID) at the Bella Center. It also hosted an International Council for Sustainable Energy Booth throughout the summit.

Affiliations

The ICSE released a statement in preparation for the Copenhagen summit in Nov 2009 with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE), the Carbon Markets and Investors Association (CMIA), the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC), and the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) calling for financial certainty and policies which help the private sector to finance (and therefore profit) from a transition to renewable energy.

If the ICSE reflects the aims of the UKBCSE, the definition of sustainable energy is likely to include nuclear, carbon capture and storage and other ineffective solutions which favour the existing large energy companies and the continued use of fossil fuels.

Contact

Address: Grosvenor Gardens House, 35/37 Grosvenor Gardens, London, SW1W 0BS, UK Tel: +44 (0) 20 7976 6655 Fax: +44 (0) 20 7828 0310 Website: www.i-cse.org