Future generations will certainly ask why both politics and economics in the 1970s, 1980s, and the beginning of the 1990s of the 20th century had been acting in such a passive and cowardly way with respect to the far-reaching opportunities offered by renewable energies. Therefore, the only open questions are

* whether the majority of our present decision-makers will be asked these questions in a bitter and accusing way due to the fact that an endless decline with innumerable catastrophes has taken place in the meantime which is caused by ignoring the solar option, or

* whether they will be asked with an ironic smile due to the fact that maybe by the turn of the century the political and economic priorities had been changed in time in favor of solar energy by establishing a global solar energy system within the first decades of the 21st century, having made a start in the present decade.

The economic and social advantages of renewable energies are enormous: for saving the earth's atmosphere; for the health of man; for an independent and safe, long-term energy supply as well as economic development; for new jobs in industry and for preventing a steadily increasing rate of unemployment; for recuperation of soil and water, for avoiding a global water crisis and for the economic liberation of agriculture. The fact that all these changes are being ignored because of one single factor - the current price of energy - which puts aside all the other aspects is a classic example of intellectual pygmyism. There might be an excuse if an individual producer or consumer of energy is acting in such a way. But it is absolutely incomprehensible when the same way of thinking exists even at the political level.

Solar energy is the road which leads us away from the energy-consuming towards the energy-producing house and by that will automatically see a far-reaching structural change. Every structural change has winners and losers. It is not advisable to make the introduction of solar energy dependent on those who will be among the losers by such a structural change - from the oil-, coal- or countries or their contracting companies, or from those which operate large power plants. The solar future cannot be made dependent on the individual premises of one single branch of the economy. Even the current energy-supplying companies have the chance to participate in building up such a solar energy system: but rather through diversification than through structural conservatism - from the supplier or producer of oil to the producer of wind power plants, biomass-conversion plants, solar energy plants, producers of Stirling motors, solar cells or collectors.

In order to promote renewable energies we need the appropriate political institutions that are able to overcome the existing particularism. It is intolerable that there is a UN Agency for Nuclear Power but still none for Renewable energies.

We need new thinking in terms of nature conservation. So far it has been of very defensive character - in connection with preventing further measures destructive to nature, whereby those measures which had been already undertaken are accepted indirectly. The consequence is a decadent attitude of trying to prevent wind power plants for nature or scenery conservation reasons. The defense of the mini-biotop has to many minds priority over saving the global biotop. This is another example of lack of proportion - but it is primarily a mistaken philosophy, an underestimation of the real ecological dangers and a misunderstanding of the ecological circle.

The 20th century became the century of the destruction of the ecosphere because of this intellectual hegemony of erroneous philosophies. We are now on the edge of a millennium of ecology. The philosophy of this new era begins with the basic assumption that renewable energies - coming from the sun - are not alternative energies; solar energy is the energy. Conventional energies were misleading alternatives. The more and the longer mankind has been following and believing in these alternatives, the more human civilization lost its ground, its basis. There is no doubt that in the future solar energy will be again the only energy used on earth. The only question is if this will happen with mankind or without mankind.

We need the courage for a renewal of economy and politics. Therefor, we have to develop priorities for environmental policies. We have to recognize that economics is the hard core of society, and that energy is the hard core of economy. Due to this overall importance of the energy question we have to set up an Agenda 1 within the "Agenda 21" of the Earth Summit in Rio 1992 on this topic of renewable energy. Renewable energies are not an emergency exit from problems of energy supply and consumption. Renewable energies are the driving forces to renew our societies. It is not only an expert's approach, it is an approach for all human society. Solar energy is the energy of the people and we need the efforts of the people to introduce it. This is the reason why we must develop a grand strategy and a new movement - a solar strategy - for renewable energy introduction.

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