World energy consumption is not only not going down, it is not even stabilizing, it is projected to grow....and very strongly.
The latest report from the International Energy Agency confirms this fact and puts the blame squarely on the expected future growth of China and India.
This is just the evidence the rich countries need to now go around pronouncing that the right thing to do is to reduce consumptions and the resulting emissions as they continue to do daily, however, without actually doing very much.
Their objective is to convince lesser developed countries to put a brake on their development so as to reduce their impact on the proyected increases. Since China and India are projected to provide the main impact on this projected growth, the rich world has to perfect arguments to do little at home and require massive limitations from poorer countries.
Do as I say not as I have done for years.
Unless the rich world puts money where their mouths are then there is no hope that lesser developed countries will put a brake on their development, at the expense of the welfare of their citizens. Even authoritarian regimes understand that they need to improve the lot of their people, albeit a little at a time.
With this Report, it sounds like we are going to have more of the same empty pronouncements from the rich world and nothing will happen.
Onésimo Alvarez-Moro
See Press Release:
The World Energy Outlook Makes the Case for Stepping up Co-operation with China and India to Address Global Energy Challenges
“The huge energy challenges facing China and India are global energy challenges and call for a global response. The World Energy Outlook 2007 charts a course to a more secure, competitive, lower-carbon energy system – a course that must involve the world’s two emerging giants”, said Nobuo Tanaka, Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA) today in London at the launch of the latest edition of the Outlook. The annual flagship publication of the IEA this year focuses on energy developments in China and India and their implications for the world.
“WEO-2007 demonstrates more clearly than ever that, if governments don’t change their policies, oil and gas imports, coal use and greenhouse-gas emissions are set to grow inexorably through to 2030 – even faster, in fact, than in last year’s Outlook. These trends would threaten energy security and accelerate climate change. But the Outlook also shows how new policies can pave the way to an alternative energy future”, Mr. Tanaka stressed.
Energy developments in China and India are transforming the global energy system as a result of their sheer size and their growing importance in international energy markets. “Rapid economic development will undoubtedly continue to drive up energy demand in China and India, and will contribute to a real improvement in the quality of life for more than two billion people. This is a legitimate aspiration that needs to be accommodated and supported by the rest of the world”, said Mr. Tanaka. “Indeed, most countries stand to benefit economically from China’s and India’s economic development through international trade.”
See full Press Release.
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