All the positive things I’ve described here at the blog regarding business practices, technological breakthroughs, and political developments are very much in train. They signal, in my mind, real hope for the future. I don’t, however, want to live with rose-colored glasses obscuring my vision.
We’re heading into a tempest now. The world economic crisis that threatens to swamp hundreds of millions of people is going to slow down progress on confronting climate change. The eloquent and insightful “Charlemagne,” writing in “The Economist,” notes the difficulties that Europe has had in meeting its ambitious renewable energy and GHG reduction goals. In my fourth post, from over a year and half ago, I wrote about the EU Summit Agreement. I wrote that “The European Union Summit meeting produced a truly historic agreement on greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy, and energy efficiency, among other things.” Well, the times were good and the Europeans were energized. There was a Homeric flavor to the Summit’s pronouncements, particularly in the light of the daunting specter of global warming. In A changed climate, Charlemagne notes “The heroic mood is gone now. In March 2007 Angela Merkel, the German chancellor and chairman of the summit, was a green champion. Today she sounds like a lobbyist for German business, listing the industries that must be shielded from the full costs of her package. In truth, almost every country has found reasons why the climate-change promises may be impossible to meet in their current form. Britain is gloomy about its renewable-energy targets.”
There will be critical votes tomorrow in the EU’s Environment Committee. They will show the depth of the commitment in Europe to realizing the EU’s goals. See Brussels readies for “Super Tuesday’ climate vote from the “EurActiv” news service. “But the vote comes amidst a worsening economic crisis, with several member states indicating that they want to put the brakes on any rapid adoption of the measures.”
I believe, though, that one of the most powerful mechanisms for stabilizing world economies and providing jobs, is staring us right in the face. Scores of analysts , and American Presidential candidates , talk about clean coal technology, nuclear power, more fossil fuel extraction, and more pipelines. Charlemagne recommends, among other things, “planning more terminals for liquefied natural gas imports, supporting pipeline projects that bypass Russia “ But the opportunity to go beyond fossil fuels and nukes is right there for us. It will be economically empowering, as report after report has said. (See my last post below, among many others here.)
Yes, the world economic waters are storm-tossed. We have to focus on the critically important task of stabilizing banks and other financial institutions. That, not incidentally, is a task for all the world’s economies, working together, as so manifestly didn’t happen in the 1930s. But we should also use this time as an opportunity to reconfigure our infrastructure, indeed our way of living, to create the conditions for long-term sustainability , and always remember that means economically and environmentally.
Update , Apparently my thinking is entirely in tune with that of Lord Stern of Brentford, world-class economist and lead author of the Stern Review on the economics of climate change. See Now is the time to tackle global warming from “The Guardian” today in which he says “We’re going to have to grow out of this … and this is an area which looks as though it could well grow strongly and with the right support could be one of the major engines of growth.” Lord Stern is the chair of the just-opened Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics.
