The blueprint for happiness
The Earth can restore its health but only if we decide to use smarter, more efficient systems
We could save R400-trillion in the next decade if we make the world a nicer place to live. That’s R50 000 each. This could completely change the world. Decisions taken in the next three years — with money that is already in budgets and technology that already exists — could make everyone happy and healthy.
It might seem impossible, but this is the conclusion reached by one of the most comprehensive blueprints ever made for our world. Set up in 2013, the independent Global Commission on the Economy and Climate looks at how countries can develop in a world that is changing.
Their blueprint — the 2018 New Climate Economy Report — was released last week and comes in at more than 200 pages.
Two-hundred pages of fear about the future — and hope, because changing things could be relatively straightforward. All that is required is the political will for the ideas in the report to be translated into action.
This more efficient, healthier and safer world is possible because of infrastructure. Developed countries need to upgrade their infrastructure and developing countries need highways, water systems and cities. The key is in how these are built.
Doing things the way we do them now will cost the world R1.3quadrillion, with South Africa chipping in a chunk of of the R370-billion it is getting from China.
But we could save R400-trillion by doing things more efficiently, and this will reduce the effect of current systems on, for example, people’s health.
All of the plans in the 2018 report have been costed and use technology and ideas that already exist. The only thing that remains is for politicians to think differently.
Most of our electricity comes from burning fossil fuels, which warm the planet. Four- million people die each year around the world from outdoor air pollution, including from power plants. Yet a billion people don’t have electricity. And governments spend R4-trillion a year subsidising fossil fuel companies such as mines and power stations.
Renewables are the obvious solution. Solar and wind panels already produce cheaper electricity, without counting the benefit of people not getting sick from air pollution. Now the key is to make smaller electric grids, so that towns and city blocks can produce their own electricity from renewables and sell it to neighbours.
Batteries will last longer, storing energy from the sun and wind. Geysers will use less energy and will operate at different times to lower pressure on the grid. These devices will talk to each other so each one uses the optimum amount of energy.
South Africa’s new energy plan already endorses this approach.
WATER