The World's Energy Challenge: A Smoke-filled Demise or a New Dawn?

by Rhys Roth

Critical international negotiations are underway to set targets and timetables for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Any agreement reached will be signed during the December '97 climate summit in Kyoto, Japan.

The 1995 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the world's most comprehensive scientific review of the issue, which involves over 2,000 scientists worldwide, concluded that human-caused climate change is occurring at unprecedented levels. Over the next century, climate changes may produce more frequent heat waves, deluges, droughts and coastal floods. Drastic climate change can severely stress forests, wetlands and other ecosystems, damage human health and disrupt agriculture and commerce.

Last July, a World Health Organization report concluded that "anticipated health risks... will be large in scale and imping[e] on whole populations." The report's principal researcher, Anthony McMichael of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, warned that industrialized nations were "actually tinkering with the very foundations of life support,"by continuing to burn fossil fuels.

In February, the "Economists' Statement on Climate Change," signed by 2,000 American economists, including six Nobel laureates, warned that global warming "carries with it significant environmental, economic, social and geopolitical risk," and that "preventative steps are justified." The statement asserts that market-based incentives could reduce greenhouse gas production without harming the US economy.

Insurance Industry Fears Future

Insurance companies have become increasingly vocal about their fear that global warming will threaten their economic future by causing more disastrous weather - a concern echoed by major banks. Many companies are exploring ways to use their investment power to speed the global transition from a fossil fuel-based energy system to a clean energy future. Some, like Union Bank of Switzerland, Royal Guardian Exchange and Natwest Group are financing major solar power installations on their buildings.

"It's expensive at the moment, but [a]s a company we have decided to lead by example," said Tim Mills, director of Guardian Properties, a division of Royal Guardian Exchange.

"Climate change presents major long-term risks to the carbon fuel industry.... The alternative energy industry offers greater growth prospect than the carbon fuel industry. Diversification into this sector also offers substantial scope to offset the risks of climate change," Mark Mansley, former Chase Manhattan Bank financial analyst, wrote in a 1995 report.

Even some oil executives are recognizing that global warming is a real threat and that business strategies must be rethought.

British Petroleum became the first oil corporation to drop out of the Global Climate Coalition, the chief US group lobbying against progress on global warming solutions. On May 19, CEO John Browne announced, "There is now an effective consensus among the world's leading scientists and serious and well-informed people outside the scientific community that there is a discernible human influence on the climate.... [I]t would be unwise and potentially dangerous to ignore the mounting concern." He went on to announce that BP will increase its solar manufacturing capacity to generate an anticipated $1 billion in annual sales within a decade.

The Solar Century Is on the Horizon

A global race is emerging to pioneer the solar revolution. As mass production ramps up, prices will drop sharply, making solar power cost-effective in the northern countries and accessible to billions of people in the developing world.

The Japanese government has launched the world's biggest initiative to kick-start solar photovoltaic (PV) markets. The Ministry of International Trade and Industry will administer $130 million in subsidies aimed at putting solar PV roofs on 10,000 homes and offices. In the wake of this announcement, major Japanese corporations including Sharp, Sanyo, Canon and Mitsubishi Electric announced major expansion plans for their PV operations.

In June, the Greek government announced that IWECO Solar, a subsidiary of the US Enron Solar company, will build and operate the world's largest solar powerplant on the island of Crete. The plant will supply the energy needs of 100,000 people at prices below current market trends . When it is completed in 2003, the facility will produce 50 megawatts (Mw) a year - 15 times the power produced by any existing PV installation.

The British Labor Party has asked Greenpeace climate consultant Jeremy Leggett - who is responsible for activating the global insurance industry on the climate change issue - to convene a high-level solar power task force to prepare a blueprint for the rapid expansion of Britain's solar industry.

California's Sacramento Municipal Utility District has signed a contract to buy a record-breaking 10 Mw of solar cells by 2002. By boosting the market for photovoltaics, this contract has the potential to lower prices significantly.

The US National Association of Counties and the International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives (an international cities coalition) have agreed to work in partnership with The Solar Century (a project to bolster solar PV markets) to encourage bulk orders of solar technology for local government buildings.

A speedy transition to solar energy can help put the brakes on global warming. It's time for a new dawn, not a smog-filled demise.

What You Can Do: Send this article to your elected officials, and tell your Congressional representatives that the US should take the lead for a strong international climate protection treaty. Insist that the US delegation to Tokyo support a global agreement to cut emissions by at least 20 percent by 2005. US Senate, Washington, DC 20510, (202) 224-3121; US House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515, (202) 225-3121. For more information, contact Atmosphere Alliance, 2103 Harrison Ave. NW, Olympia, WA 98502, (360) 352-1763, fax: (360) 943-4977, atmosphere@olywa.net.