Now Is the Time to Build Clean Energy, and Save $145 Trillion
A neighbor recently joked about her son not wanting to go back to work. He had been laid off and was receiving unemployment benefits, plus $600 a week as part of the stimulus. In the meantime, Congress has just given the airlines $25 billion and is set to pay out another half-trillion-dollar air drop to corporations and small businesses. Oil companies are going bankrupt (can you smell a bailout?) and we were concerned about record deficits before the Coronavirus.
If there was ever a time to promote clean energy, this is it. We will look back on this moment with regret if we don’t.
This is a retraining opportunity that would help us move from the era of burning the earth’s stockpile of carbon to using clean energy. It is the opportunity for research and development, for carbon taxes, and to lead the world in clean energy technology and production. The six trillion dollar economy would save us trillions and lead us out of the coming recession.
Retraining
The loss of jobs in sectors like the coal industry points to the need for retraining in the development of new technology and clean energy. Retraining people would support community development as well.
Research And Development
We are on the cusp of an energy revolution with hydrogen fusion nuclear energy and hydrogen fuel, which could be generated by the sun. Instead of propping up old industrial-based fossil fuel research, we should be funding the development of clean energy.
Carbon Taxes And Dividends
Bipartisan momentum has been building for a carbon tax and dividend for years. We can visibly see a reduction in greenhouse gases, due to curbed transportation, manufacturing, and energy use. It is time for a serious tax on carbon that will generate revenue.
A Six Trillion Dollar Economy Awaits the U.S.
Estimates are that we subsidies fossil fuels with $20 billion a year, yet the new global clean energy economy will generate six trillion dollars. What remains to be seen, according to MIT Professor Kerry Emanuel is whether the U.S. will be the leader and sell that technology and energy to the rest of the world, or will the U.S. be buying it from India or China.
Savings of $145 Trillion
A recent article from Yale Climate Connections pointed out that we could save a whopping $145 trillion by taking aggressive action to address climate change. The 2020 Drawdown Review includes economic estimates of the capital costs to deploy solutions, the net lifetime operation costs, and lifetime profits from the sale of products produced by the agricultural solutions. The key conclusion is that while the upfront costs are substantial — around $25 trillion globally — the resulting savings and profits are five to six times larger.
The new Drawdown Review considers an ambitious scenario, keeping global temperatures below the aggressive Paris target of 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) by achieving carbon drawdown in the mid-2040s. In this scenario global economic savings are $145 trillion, with an additional $29 trillion in profits generated from the agricultural sector — the latter on its own offsetting the initial $28 trillion capital costs. The savings estimates are calculated over the lifetime of the solutions.
Some of the savings would be immediate, such as health impacts from climate-related disasters, and converting to energy-efficient products and some would be cumulative over time. The scenario envisions offshore wind and industrial solar contributing 27 percent and 25 percent of global electricity by 2050.
The Drawdown Review emphasizes that there is no silver bullet to solving climate change. Practices such as industrial farming, curbing food waste, rain forest destruction, HFCs in air conditioners, along with cleaner energy all need to be addressed aggressively and they would cost $28 billion. But the net global savings would be $145 billion.
If there ever was an opportunity to invest in a better future, now is the time.
