Smart solutions

The world is on its way towards a greener future, the only real question is which road is the best one to take. The thinking behind the Paris climate accord is out of date: statist solutions, unrealistic targets, naive politics. No wonder Donald Trump is a sceptic. He was elected to boost his country’s industrial output, and decarbonising by diktat would hurt his constituents. China, by contrast, is an enthusiast for the accord because it has a market advantage in renewable technology that it wants to exploit. According to Greenpeace estimates, every hour China erects a wind turbine and enough solar panels to cover a football field.

China is reaping the rewards of capitalism: a country first has to develop its economy before it can afford to clean it up. And as the technology develops, so the price of fighting pollution falls. The cost of an electric car, for instance, is predicted to hit parity with a petrol engine as early as next year in Europe. Rather than binding the hands of business with targets, it makes far more sense to deregulate, encourage investment and liberate the new markets for green technologies.

It is time for Britain to join the fracking revolution. Last month, a report by the US Energy Information Administration concluded that exploitation of shale gas, which has dramatically cut American energy costs, has helped to cut energy-related CO2 emissions to 12 per cent below their 2005 level. Here is a technology cheaper and greener than, say, coal – and yet environmentalists oppose it. This is why ideology must not be allowed to drive the energy debate. Instead, let the world invest in what works and what it can afford – and put a little more faith in the ability of mankind to invent smart solutions to its problems.