Busting the decarbonisation myths

Decarbonising global economies at a faster rate is central to our attempts to address the increasingly volatile and dangerous climatic conditions.

Building on years of experience and the innovations in technologies that are matured now, the decarbonisation approaches are highly expedient. Yet, such efforts are often confronted with inertia, fabricated information and different views.

While there are quite a good number of myths on decarbonisation, I would like to dwell upon several of them, particularly related to energy, and refute them in this piece. 

Decarbonisation at the expense of economic growth

Decarbonisation undermines economic growth - a common myth that props up in different discussions. Critics argue that this is too costly and would affect the competitiveness of a country.

Amidst such concerns, the foundation for undertaking decarbonisation measures is rather favourable. For instance, renewable energy and energy efficiency are two important decarbonisation pillars of an economy.

In the prevailing scenario, renewable energies are cheaper than fossil fuels and are on the cycle of falling costs. Hence, investment in renewable energies would reduce energy cost, result in a spiral effect throughout an economy and lead to more competitiveness apart from containing carbon emission. 

On the other hand, energy efficiency - termed as the first fuel in a sustainable global energy system by the International Energy Agency (IEA) - can do wonders. In essence, energy efficiency means using less energy in producing at least the same level of output with respect to the no-energy-efficiency case.

In addition to cutting down carbon emission and energy cost, energy efficiency enhances the competitiveness of a system, be it an industry, a sector or an economy.

Combining both renewable energy and energy efficiency, a country would certainly fare better than not taking the advantages of either one or both. 

There are two other caveats of business-as-usual energy systems. First, when renewable energies are not on the priority, the fossil fuel dependence in many countries costs huge amounts of subsidies. Second, societies pay increasingly more as a result of the rising burden of fossil fuel induced diseases. 

Energy efficiency and renewable energy, as a matter of fact, could free up resources. This can be achieved through energy savings and the removal of energy price distortions, which could be recycled in the economies to support targeted programs.

One of the avenues could be channelling resources to undertake follow-up decarbonisation measures. Different social development programs could also be supported, including climate change adaptation, awareness-raising on energy efficiency and conservation.

Furthermore, energy efficiency and renewable energy are the potential levers to minimise reliance on energy import and improve energy security in many countries.

Along with these, early spending on decarbonisation, as scientific studies have revealed, would lessen the future cost to address climate change.  

In all likelihood, decarbonisation could unleash the opportunities for enhanced competitiveness while also fixing energy pricing anomalies and reducing the social burden of fossil fuels. 

Representational Image. Illustration: TBS

Develop first, decarbonise afterwards

The basic tenet of such myths is that the developed world did not sacrifice consumption of resources and burning of dirty fuels in their aspirations linked to the development. Developing countries shall, therefore, develop first and decarbonise afterwards at their convenience.

The seeming problem behind the hypothesis is that much of the future emissions of the developing countries would be generated from the things/establishments that are yet to be built.

The dangerous stance to not establish efficient and green industry, transport and building in the development process would cost these countries even more.

Similarly, forgoing/not giving proper attention to renewable energies, while ramping up future power generation capacities, would not make economic sense for them.   

The burden of job losses

Decarbonisation is still viewed by some as a potential threat to job security for the people serving the fossil fuel industry. Contrary to such belief, the global renewable energy sector continues to provide incremental jobs.

According to the International Renewable Energy Association (IRENA), around 11.5 million jobs have been created by the renewable energy sector until 2019. The job growth rate compared to the previous year was approximately 4%.

Overall job opportunities in the sector are expected to reach 30 million by 2030. The sector also shows more gender parity as it employs around 32% women against that of 22% in the fossil fuel sector.

The workers at the risk of losing jobs due to coal exit plans in some countries would find leeway to expand their skills-base fitting to the need of the renewable energy sector as the phase-out process would take several to many years from now.

Many of these workers already have considerable expertise to contribute to the clean energy sector. And the governments might also consider reskilling these workers, as needed in the clean energy sector. 

In addition, the decarbonisation perspective is more supply-side centric to some people. Sources of energy, energy generation, transmission and distribution are their prime concerns, which completely leave out the demand side of an energy system.

There is plentiful evidence of significant job creation from energy optimisation on the demand side of an economy. For example, energy efficiency generates direct jobs in research and development for energy-efficient technologies, production of efficient appliances, installation and maintenance of energy-efficient equipment etc. 

Endnote

A clear understanding of the net contribution of decarbonisation, as explained in the examples above, is key to debunk the myths.

Available practical solutions shall be scaled up to prevent the status quo surrounding this. When science is clear on the need for deep decarbonisation, we are grappled with climate change-induced adversaries.

Climate change is already eating up a sizable amount of GDP in different economies every year. The best thing we could do is to follow scientific recommendations, debunk the myths and take decarbonisation actions as a logical progression.

Nevertheless, it is relevant to learn from the lessons of other countries, closely analyse how the challenges have been dealt with and take measures to avoid the setbacks experienced elsewhere. 

Shafiqul Alam is a Humboldt Scholar, an engineer and an environmental economist 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.