Most people agree that climate change is necessary if we are to live longer, healthier lives. But the idea of moving away from the use of fossil fuels and towards more renewable energy sources has not been readily accepted by everyone and the introduction of renewable energy projects have seen many years of slow processing and implementation.
Energy is at the center of global social, economic and climate problems and comprises a key component of a sustainable future.
With oil prices hitting rock bottom and stockpiles of crude sitting on tankers in the Middle East, the issue of energy and where it is heading is a hot topic these days. Energy is at the center of global social, economic and climate problems and comprises a key component of a sustainable future. The industrious use of renewable energy can result in increased incomes and a higher standard of living for millions of people throughout the world.
International Funding
Global Environment Facility, GEF, is the financial mechanism of the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change and has invested over $1.2 billion over the last 20 years in more than 200 renewable energy projects in close to 100 developing countries and economies in transition, such as India, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, Morocco, Turkey, Russia, and even Barbados.
Additional funding from other countries has helped support these projects, which include large scale power plants, to the tune of $8.3 billion in co-financing.
Direct funding and implementation of renewable energy projects is actually the easiest part of switching to a clean energy economy. According to GEF, the transition does result in the loss of jobs in the coal industry. However, other jobs become available in areas such as global wind power or solar photovoltaics. In fact, GEF predicts that by the year 2030, jobs in these sectors could reach close to 8.4 million.
A report released by the Center for American Progress (CAP) indicated that worldwide renewable energy currently employs 2.3 million people, either directly or in feeder industries, due in part to the technology which is labor-intensive and provides more jobs per dollar invested than conventional electric power. CAP analysts estimate that by making a 40% cut in greenhouse gas from 2005 levels by 2035, 4.2 million jobs would be created overall. According to CAP, the overall effect would be a 1.5% reduction in the unemployment rate.
Not an Easy Switch
Most experts agree that the transition to a clean energy economy is not an easy one. In fact, a reduction in fossil fuels could have the opposite effect. According to one analyst, if investments in clean energy reduces global fossil fuel demand by even 5%, it would result in a steep 25% to 30% drop in fossil fuel prices, which would only lead to increased attraction for consumers in non-renewables.
In addition, fossil fuel companies are in business because people want the products that fossil fuels make and power. It’s a question of supply as well as demand with most people not willing to give up on more and more electronic equipment and whose continued purchases continue to fuel the retail industry.
Even assuming prosperous people in the west could be persuaded to restrain their consumption, CO2 emissions would continue to increase because the real growth in energy demand going forward is going to come from the developing world where millions of people currently have little or no electricity but where energy consumption is rising and exports of fossil fuel materials are increasing. Africa, for example, has abundant reserves of coal, considered the most damaging of fossil fuels and the nations of Angola and Nigeria are major oil exporters.
Meeting in Paris
Despite global hesitancy to impose measures for climate change, countries agree on the need to move ahead. The UN will be hosting a conference in Paris at the end of 2015 and will seek commitments to reduce carbon emissions from all the countries attending. The way it looks now, however, the offers will fall a long way short of what the experts say is a level consistent with the 2C target – about 12bn tons a year which could be saved through substantial improvements in energy-efficiency usage in all facets.
The International Energy Agency (IEA), an autonomous organization which works to ensure reliable, affordable and clean energy for its 29 member countries and beyond, believes that further delays in implementing a climate change can be costly. It points to three possible ways to reduce the current carbon footprint: reduce the amount each person consumes, reduce the number of people, or make each unit of growth less carbon-intensive.
The first two methods are practically impossible to impose, leaving only the third possibility-- reducing the carbon-intensity of growth. The IEA goes further in suggesting that the American Executive should make climate change a mission ‘similar to the way that John F Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon in the early 1960s.’ The mission would call for a phase out in domestic use and export of coal by a fixed date, or would set a deadline for transferring 50% of US energy consumption to renewable sources. The government could then bring in other nations to sign on to the same commitment. 
Other ideas include placing a price on carbon either through a carbon tax or through a cap-and-trade scheme. Implementing a transitional conversion from coal to gas over the next 15-20 years is another possibility. Gas is, of course, a fossil fuel, but it has half the emissions of coal which is by far the dirtiest of the fossil fuels. Once this switch has been accomplished, according to Dieter Helm, professor of energy studies at Oxford University, new technologies for increased reductions can be examined.
Renewable technology is moving ahead. Investment in clean energy is growing at double-digit numbers and that is good news for the environment as well as the economy. However, according to Oxford’s Helm, renewables will still only meet around 20% of energy demand by 2035, even assuming sufficient growth rates. The process will require some tough decisions and major compromises will have to be taken. And even with all that, it will be some time before renewables can take the place of today’s energy companies.