Experts turn climate policy on its head

Tuesday, 11 May 2010

A new report says that greenhouse gas emissions reductions can only be achieved if they are the consequence of policies designed to improve quality of life.

 

The London School of Economics has co-ordinated a new international report called The Hartwell Paper, written by a team of experts from Canada, Finland, Germany, Japan, the UK and the USA.

 

The report criticises the approach taken by the UN's international climate change policy for focusing on greenhouse gas emissions targets and timetables. This approach, the report said, creates a "preoccupation with sinfulness" that fails to engage the general public. The paper proposes that the global economy can be moved away from its depedence on fossil fuels at the same time as pursuing economic recovery from the current widespread recession. Greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by pursuing more pragmatic and popular goals including expanding energy access, energy security - and in the long-term making energy less expensive and more abundent.

 

Very substantially increased investment in funding for energy efficiency and technology innovation in decarbonizing energy supply would be provided by a relative low-level carbon tax. This investment would have the aim of developing a range of low-carbon energy sources that would have unsubsidised costs less than those of fossil fuels. The report also notes that energy policy and climate change policy are not the same thing and that it will also be necessary to address emissions in other sectors.

 

On energy, the report notes that others have proposed similar objectives. Google has advocated its RE<C ('renewable energy at a cost less than coal') initiative and Bill Gates recently called for major investment in research and development to make low-carbon power, including nuclear power, cheaper than coal.

 

The paper states that the principal obstacle to widespread deployment of low- or non-carbon energy sources is higher costs, in comparison with fossil fuel alternatives, with renewables such as wind, solar thermal, solar PV, geothermal and wave being more expensive except under the best of circumstances. The report notes that in some countries "generous government subsidies" have helped renewables grow from a low base. However, the report argues, these subsidies will be politically difficult to maintain as renewables increase their market share.

 

The report also notes the revival that nuclear power is experiencing, particularly in the UK, China and Japan. But, the report claims, new nuclear plants costs far more than fossil fuel alternatives, due to "safety, waste and proliferation concerns, both real and imagined."

 

To address these issues report says that improving the efficiency of solar panels, improving the energy density of electric batteries and fuel cells, development of Third Generation (cellulosic) bio-fuels, and solving the design and materials challenges associated with mass manufacture of small, self contained nuclear plants are clear technical challenges upon which clean energy research, development, and deployment efforts must focus.

 
Researched and written

by World Nuclear News