An Immense Investment Opportunity

While developing countries struggle to adapt to the changing climate, developed countries—and the surging economies of huge developing countries such as the PRC and India—are tasked with finding ways to reduce the greenhouse gases emitted in their countries to help mitigate the problem.

The situation is particularly acute in Asia. The region’s booming economies will produce and consume a huge portion of world energy in years to come. How that energy is produced—with sources that pour greenhouse gases into the atmosphere or through cleaner methods—is a key issue facing the region and the world.

In the early 1970s, developing Asia’s share of global greenhouse gas emissions was less than 10%, according to Josh Carmody, a senior project specialist for clean energy and climate change at the Asian Development Bank. By 2030, these countries are predicted to contribute 42% of the global total annual greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is a simple fact that the world will not avoid dangerous climate change unless there is a substantial increase in investment in clean energy in Asia in the next 20 years,” said Carmody.

The massive investments needed in clean energy cannot be provided by any donor or development agency, or even a combination of them. It can only be achieved by attracting private investment to the Asian clean energy sector. According to Carmody, the clean energy sector is a $100-billion-a-year industry.

Concerns regarding climate change will continue to drive policy and regulatory support for clean energy in the coming years. This government support, combined with concerns about rising prices for fossil fuels and energy security, will continue to drive investment in the sector.

“The challenge is to ensure that investment in clean energy in Asia takes place at the necessary scale in the next two decades,” said Carmody. “This presents an immense investment opportunity.

A Road Map or a Letdown?

In December 2007, in Bali, Indonesia, the world came together to address these issues. Ministers from more than 180 countries gathered to hammer out an agreement on how to work together to slow global warming and adapt to the changes already underway.

In 2 weeks of pragmatic talks and dramatic emotional negotiations, developed and developing countries agreed to a “road map” that would set out a clear agenda for negotiating a successor by 2009 to the first commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol, the first major international agreement on addressing climate change and which ends in 2012.

The challenge facing countries trying to deal with this issue is formidable. According to the IPCC, in order to hold global warming to manageable levels by 2100, industrialized countries must reduce their greenhouse gas emissions between 80% and 95% by 2050.

The Bali road map calls on developed nations to consider mitigation “commitments” or mandatory caps. It calls on developing countries to consider mitigation “actions”—language less demanding than that for industrialized countries. But the plan does not call for specific targets for emissions reductions, which disappointed many at the Bali meeting.

The key deal obtained for developing countries from the meeting was an agreement for industrialized, developed countries to increase financing and expedite the transfer of clean energy technology to developing countries. The goal is to allow developing countries the energy they desperately need to expand their economies and lift their populations out of poverty while reducing the emissions of greenhouse gases.

Many heralded the Bali road map as a landmark agreement charting a path forward. But others said it was 2 weeks of talking with an agreement to talk more.

“Ministers from some industrialized countries meeting in Bali have let down the people of the world,” said Stephanie Long, climate coordinator for the global nongovernmental organization Friends of the Earth International. “They reached agreement on a way forward, but with little to guide them along the way. Future talks will now face a serious uphill battle to reach a strong agreement by the end of 2009.”

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon acknowledged the difficult road ahead in his statement after the Bali meeting. “This is the beginning,” he said, “not the end.” •

Дата добавления: 2015-10-02