The executive secretary of the UNFCCC, Yvo de Boer, is a particularly influential figure. But in his opening speech at the Bali conference, while advocating for strong action on climate change, there was one particularly worrying phrase that sent a ripple through the international crowd. “Fossil fuels are here to stay,” he said.
Uh-oh. This is definitely not a good sign!
Check out this video for some remarks he made at a press conference a few hours later:
My basic objection to his statements is thus: Fossil fuels have a lot of ‘C’ in them. When you burn them in ‘O2’, you end up with CO2. CO2 causes climate change. It’s a simple physical fact, and you can’t negotiate with the laws of physics.
If you dig up the carbon and burn it, the CO2 heats our atmosphere, acidifies our oceans, or corrodes our land.
Perhaps Mr de Boer has had one too many conversations with the big oil producers, like OPEC and Russia.
I call on Mr de Boer to recognise the clear vested interests of these countries, and instead to listen to the youth of the world, who come with no historical baggage and who have no vested interests other than a safe and healthy future.
Given that burning fossil fuels causes climate change, which threatens that safe future, global youth are clearly saying that fossil fuels are NOT here to stay. With all due respect, Yvo de Boer is wrong on that front.
‘Carbon Capture and Storage’ (CCS), or ‘Geosequestration’, will not solve the problem. Just like there is not enough room in our atmosphere to store the carbon dioxide that we create, there is not enough room under the earth’s crust. (For a full discussion see this post).
We aren’t asking that the fossil industry ends overnight, but it must be phased out, and the UNFCCC secretariat must acknowledge that. My personal conviction is that ‘cleaner’ fossil fuel technologies like efficiency and Geosequestration, while an important step in the transition away from
fossil fuels, must not be used as an excuse to prolong fossil fuel use.
What is more, the cost of ‘cleaning up’ the fossil industries must be borne by private investment from the fossil industries themselves – they have significant profits under their belt, and can certainly afford to clean up their act.
The world’s public investment should not subsidise these industries further, but instead be directed into long-term renewable solutions – wind, solar, geothermal, tidal, and end-use energy efficiency.
To stop climate change, fossil fuels must be phased out and it’s time that our world leaders acknowledged that openly. We can’t solve climate change otherwise.
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Obviously I agree that coal and oil emit CO2 which causes climate change, but I do think Mr. de Boer has made a very important and valid point in that those two resources are currently the most available and the cheapest for many nations. Many of these developing nations are struggling to sustain the lives of their people, let alone the earth. Before we can expect them to begin heavy investments in alternative energy (when they have all they need right now just waiting to be dug up) we might have to seriously look at many of the other problems facing the country. By helping to end many of those problems, we might be able to convince the governments to take a closer look at non-carbon emitting resources. But until then, I’m afraid we are lacking a major incentive to stop these countries from energy business as usual.
The global-changing decisions that are taken by governments around the world in the quest for sustainability are a catastrophe for humankind in the long-term. Two of these decisions at the forefront of news presently are biofuels and carbon capture and storage.
Biofuels – the fuel revolution that will supposingly help us
1. Growing crops in the USA for biofuels takes around the same energy input for fertilisers and processing the crop as is saved by replacing petrol on the forecourt (Biofuels - A solution worse than the problem, Daily Telegraph).
2. By harvesting the peat bogs for biofuels we release 30 times more carbon dioxide than will be recouped by burning the biofuel produced (Prof. Jack Riely, University of Nottingham)
3. Growing biofuels takes a lot of land and huge amounts of water, neither of which the world has to spare.
4. China and India risk famine if they proceed with their biofuels plans, because they don’t have enough water to grow both fuel and food (International Water Management Institute).
5. Biofuels are killing forests and leading to more global warming besides taking land away from food crops (Global Forest Coalition).
6. The diversion of land meant for food crops to agrofuel production is a “crime against humanity” (Jean Ziegler, UN’s Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food).
Carbon Capture – Putting off today what others will have to solve tomorrow
1. Carbon sequestration and storage (under our oceans and land) is an untried method of locking up carbon dioxide forever but where there is not a 100% assurance that it will not escape in time. The possible escape routes can be through earthquake, land shift, terrorism (holding the world to ransom) or human disaster/accident.
2. Sequestration and storage of carbon dioxide is not a solution, but a problem that humankind will have face in the future. Indeed, eventually one that would threaten the existence of human life itself on Earth for nothing ever designed has lasted forever.
3. Governments as usual are only looking at solving problems today without any understanding of what this will bring in the future. Indeed, making matters far worse in the years ahead for future generation’s to basically suffer at the hands of their creative neglect. It is an attempt at locking up gasses that are toxic to humans and leaving any problems to future generations to solve and fix.
4. If ever there were a rupture in the storage vessel, the ramifications for the world would be immense to say the very least. Therefore it is a technique of putting off today what others will have to fix tomorrow philosophy (that is if they can).
Dr David Hill
World Innovation Foundation
Bern, Switzerland