Climate Change: Challenge, Opportunity and Justice

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Chandrashekhar Dasgupta

The threat of climate change cannot be met without a truly revolutionary transformation of the energy sector. Ever since the 18th century, with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, human beings have been burning increasing quantities of hydrocarbon fuels, particularly coal and petroleum. The progressive accumulation in the atmosphere of the carbon dioxide emissions resulting from the use of these fuels is the main cause of global warming. Thus, tackling climate change requires a massive shift of tectonic proportions from hydrocarbons to renewable energy (solar, wind, tidal, etc) and nuclear energy. Currently available technologies permit only limited applications of renewable energy. Major technological breakthroughs are needed for the transformational shift to renewable energy that is now imperative.

Energy security considerations powerfully reinforce the case for a shift from oil to renewable energy. Unlike coal, global petroleum reserves are heavily concentrated in politically unstable, volatile or conflict-prone countries. Oil prices have been subject to sharp fluctuations. Most industrialised countries tend to be net importers of oil. Energy security calls for reduced dependence on a commodity whose price and assured availability is subject to significant uncertainty.

In fact, long before climate change appeared on the international agenda, energy security concerns led the United States to perceive the importance of renewable energy. 'Oil dependence is a problem we can solve. We have the political consensus and the technological opportunity. This is a moment to seize', declared President Nixon in January 1974, after the embargo imposed by the Arab states in the previous year drove up oil prices from three to eleven dollars per barrel. To perceive the national interest is one thing; to act upon it is another. For the past quarter century, despite periodic reaffirmations, the United States has failed to translate this vision of energy security into reality. Vested interests in the oil industry have triumphed over the declared national interest of the United States. In recent years, concerns about climate change have added to existing anxieties about energy security and now is the time for a massive shift to renewable energy."