We Cannot Deny Developing Nations The Right To Develop & Industrialize
There is a lot of debate around climate circles about how we deal with the issue of how developing and less developed nations can industrialize and grow.
The western world has enjoyed over a century of fossil fuel-led development and economic growth. The global south did not enjoy such growth and development.
Many developing and least developed nations (LDCs) argue that they are similarly entitled to industrialize on the back of cheap and reliable sources of energy.
But the UN and climate bodies are anxious about the idea: would that not be detrimental to our global decarbonization goals?
It is certainly true that were the global south to industrialize the same way as the west, we will fail to meet our Paris Accord goals.
But renewables cannot provide energy stability or meet the expected demands.
Nuclear won’t work in the less-developed world and we’ve grown wary of it anyway.
All of these factors would point to a straightforward answer:
The rapid deployment of Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage (CCUS) would enable the less-developed world to enjoy the same development rights as the northern hemisphere, without the associated rise in atmospheric CO2.
Logic has a funny way of cutting through the noise sometimes.
Yet… the noise remains because of an obsession with renewables.
With powerful Big Green lobby groups at the helm, we have seen over the past few years what we call the metastisation of catastrophization.
You cannot open a newspaper (for those that still do) without alarm bells ringing about the rapid growth of coal-fired power plants in China and India. (China and India will develop as they see fit and seem to be adopting practical ways of doing so without aggravating local populations fed up with filthy air quality.)
Let’s be crystal clear:
CarbonKerma wants the planet to meet the Paris Accord goals by 2050. That’s what we are working on. But we don’t want to condemn 4 billion people to energy poverty to do so. AND WE KNOW THAT DOESN’T NEED TO HAPPEN. This is not actually a zero-sum game. CCUS solves both these challenges of less atmospheric CO2 and less energy poverty worldwide.
We need rapid decarbonization.
And we need to produce lots and lots of cheap, abundant, reliable energy for as many people in the world as possible as quickly as possible.
The answer, albeit an expensive one, is the rapid scaling up and deployment of CCUS.
(A few adults in the room wouldn’t go astray, either.)
Let’s delve into some core fundamentals that will provide us with a moral compass and some foundational logic for our energy future:
1. Developing countries deserve the right to industrialize.
2. Energy poverty is a serious problem that needs to be addressed now.
3. Lowering emissions as less developed areas in the world industrialize will be difficult under current policy proposals.
Let’s hone in on these issues one-by-one:
1. Developing Countries Deserve The Right To Industrialize.
Just as the developed world spent over a century burning fossil fuels to industrialize so too should the developing and less developed parts of the world enjoy the fruits of industrialization. It reduces poverty, illness, increases life expectancy and overall well-being, and provides for dignity in life.
Human development is essential in making the world a better place to live for as many people as possible and in spreading wealth more equitably. Industrialization is a critical component of that human development.
For the developed world to deny those rights to less developed economies and societies condemns billions of families to endless cycles of poverty. That stance is immoral, unjust, and intolerable. As a global society, it is critical that we raise living standards everywhere. And that requires industrialization.
Industrialization requires urbanization.
And urbanization requires energy. Lots of it.
2. Energy Poverty Is A Serious Problem That Needs To Be Addressed Now.
According to UN Women, close to a billion people on earth lack access to electricity. Around 2.4 billion people lack access to clean cooking. Roughly a billion people access healthcare facilities that lack reliable sources of energy — a life-threatening scenario.
All told, it is estimated that approximately 3.8 billion people suffer from some degree of energy poverty.
That is a staggering number. The reality of energy poverty means vastly less access to education, healthcare, clean water, and nutrition. To be energy poor means hours a day searching for energy sources like firewood and dried cow dung.
Fossil fuels are the only way for the energy poor to cheaply, reliably, and immediately escape energy poverty. Renewables are expensive, unreliable, and cannot meet the energy needs the developing world needs at scale. By using Carbon Capture and Storage technologies, we can provide carbon-free energy to the world’s energy poor.
3. Lowering Emissions As Less Developed Areas In The World Industrialize Will Be Difficult Under Current Policy Proposals.
The notion that less developed and developing countries can industrialize in a carbon-neutral way without the use of fossil fuels, (provided using CCUS technologies), is fanciful.
Therefore, imposing low carbon growth requirements on the poorest nations on earth, and insisting they rely on renewables alone is not only entirely unreasonable. It is immoral.
Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage is the clear solution to reaching our decarbonization goals while also raising living standards across the globe as equitably as possible.
CCUS does not prolong the use of fossil fuels. The lack of viable alternatives does. CCUS simply makes that fuel carbon-free.
Affording the world’s poorer countries access to carbon-neutral fossil fuel-produced energy is the only way to meet our global atmospheric CO2 reduction goals in a just and ethical way.
We cannot morally stand back and deny the global south the same development opportunities the developed world has already enjoyed.
CarbonKerma. Minted For Good.
CarbonKerma | LinkedIn | Twitter | Medium | YouTube
