New ‘Trumpcies’ to make America great again
backing, the Paris Agreement will most probably find it difficult to be implemented worldwide.
Funding is vital to get all nations to act together to follow the Paris Agreement. While more work needs to be done to improve outcomes of the Paris Agreement to ensure it is not just a statistical manipulation, there are no other tangible solutions available to replace it at the moment. So, who’s going to fund the enormous financing that is required for climate mitigation across the world with localised positive impacts and outcomes?
Then, should we buy or subscribe to or even entertain made-in-America environmentally friendly solutions since the Trump administration does not believe in climate change?
Trump’s fossil fuel revival plans will replace Obama’s low-carbon economy. This again will put more strain on the development of renewable energy (RE) technology that is affordable. Awer will praise Trump if he issues a presidential decree to investigate the problem of higher or bloated costs in RE and make it affordable not only for Americans but others as well. Unfortunately, all of us have to take the longer route to unmask the profiteering in RE.
Also, do not be misled. If the US is not interested in buying or using RE, there will be an oversupply in the world market. We should be able to buy or use these technologies at cheaper value due to this situation.
However, there will be news of sudden shortage or sanctions in certain countries that protect the sales of these RE technologies. This has been the case twice in the past 10 years. Malaysia and nations alike must not be duped again!
On another note, Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) and non-Opec members have reached some “consensus” in cutting oil production. We need to bear in mind that a lot of future capital expenditures were called off due to low oil prices in the past two years.
Opec’s cartel practice has caused a lot of chaos in the world energy market in the past few years. It also delayed many RE investments. How will the incoming administration thread its “Trumpcies” (Trump policies) with Opec to ensure stable energy prices can be achieved?
Stable energy prices are not necessarily very high or very low. They have to be stable to ensure development into environmentally friendly solutions that can move forward.
Since Trump’s views are not so much in support of climate change, his administration will still have to address the badly hit shale industry in their own backyard due to Opec’s move to flood the market. Either way, he has to deal with Opec to boost the fossil fuel economy he wants to revive.
At the end of the day, it boils down to just one simple issue: If climate change really hits the globe hard anytime from now, the inhabitants may be wiped out.
Fortunately, Earth will survive. New life will evolve to suit perhaps harsher conditions. Let’s pray that the only planet we have to live in can sustain our civilisation longer than many predictions and the “big brother” nations learn to sustain their longterm policy implementation globally.
This article was contributed by Piarapakaran S, president of the Association of Water and Energy Research Malaysia (Awer), a nongovernment organisation involved in research and development in the fields of water, energy and environment.