Balancing economic growth with thrust on green technologies
ROME/SEOUL: The answer to this big question is apparently “yes” – Economic growth can be really green. How?
The facts are there. For instance, in 2016, solar power became the cheapest form of energy in 58 lower income countries, including China India and Brazil. In Europe, in 2016, 86 per cent of the newly installed energy capacity was from renewable sources. And solar power will likely be the lowestcost energy option in almost all parts of the world in less than 10 years.
This bold, fact-based information has been provided by Frank Rijsberman, the Director General of the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI), a well-known expert in the field of sustainable development and former CEO of the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) Consortium.
The G20 countries pledged in 2009 to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies, yet they continue to this day
Building on this documented information, Rijsberman, in an article Will fossil fuels and conventional cars be obsolete by 2030?, which was published on Feb 23 in The Huffington Post, asks “Is it all over for fossil fuels?”
The GGGI chief then answers: “Tony Seba, Author of “Clean Disruption of Energy and Transportation,” predicts that the industrial era of centralised fossil-fuel based energy production and transportation will be all over by 2030.”
Solar energy and self-driving electric vehicles will take over, explains Rijsberman. “New business models will allow people to call a self-driving car on their phone for a ride, ending the need for private car ownership.”
This change will occur as quickly as the transition from horse-drawn carriages to cars a century ago.
“The Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, and independent think-tank the Carbon Tracker Initiative echoed Seba’s prediction in their recent report, stating that electric vehicles and solar panels could dominate by 2020, sparking revolution in the energy sector and putting an end to demand growth for oil and coal.”
The Global Green Growth Institute invited experts to debate Seba’s “clean disruption” last month (January 2017) at the World Economic Forum in Davos (see short summary of our conclusions here).
“We discussed what are the main impediments to a 100 per cent clean energy infrastructure. The most immediate barriers are fossil fuel subsidies and current government legislation. The G20 countries pledged in 2009 to eliminate these subsidies, yet they continue to this day, Rijsberman informed.
“Significant volumes of investment are shifting away from fossil fuels and towards alternative energy services, particularly in countries with binding renewable energy targets such as in Europe.”
According to the head of GGGI — a treaty-based international, inter-governmental organisation dedicated to supporting and promoting strong, inclusive and sustainable economic growth in developing countries and emerging economies–the energy transition can accelerate through the removal of fossil fuel subsidies.
Globally fossil fuel subsidies still amount to some 450 billion dollars per year, warned Rijsberman.
Even African governments, with limited budgets and many competing priorities still subsidise fossil fuels to the tune of US$20 billion to US$25 billion per year according to Dr Frannie Laeutier of the African Development Bank, speaking in Davos, he added.
Rijsberman then underlined that the best way for governments to attract the private sector is to stand aside (i.e., remove impeding policies such as fossil fuel subsidies and enable market access) and let the market develop by itself.
“Easier said than done, of course, for countries with monopolistic power utilities, with large political influence; or for countries with heavy subsidies on electricity prices.”
Unsustainable Depletion of Natural Resources
The Seoul-based Global Green Growth Institute, which was established in 2012, at the Rio+20 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development, has been accelerating the transition toward a new model of economic growth –green growth– founded on principles of social inclusivity and environmental sustainability. — IPS