Cuba: "Energy is an instrument of power."

COPENHAGEN, Dec 13 (IPS) - "Energy is an instrument of power. Whoever has energy, controls the world," Cuban expert Luis Bérriz said in an address to Klimaforum, the civil society meeting being held in parallel to the UN conference on climate change in the Danish capital.

Cuba ditched the pursuit of nuclear energy, not at the behest of countries like the United States, but because it discovered that the sun "is the energy of socialism," Bérriz said Sunday. He was referring to an abandoned project, dating from the 1980s, for a nuclear plant in Juraguá, in the province of Cienfuegos.

Bérriz, the head of the Cuban Society for the Promotion of Renewable Energy Sources and Respect for the Environment (CUBASOLAR), arrived in the Danish capital Dec. 8 to give several talks at Klimaforum and participate as an observer at the climate change summit.

"Hard energy, concentrated in coal, oil and nuclear power is imperialistic and capitalist," said Bérriz in a talk on Cuba's state energy policy.

In contrast, "the sun shines for everyone, even the rich. It belongs to no one, therefore solar energy is the energy of socialism, the peoples' energy, the energy of the future," added the Cuban scientist and expert on non-conventional renewable energy sources (NCRE).

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http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=49669

"20bn barrel oil discovery puts Cuba in the big league"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/oct/18/cuban-oil