Climate Change, Innovation And The Clean Energy Race
The story of this decade can and must be about inventing and using new clean energy technologies.
If this means a space-race style contest between big economies such as ours, then we are both up for that.
But if there are also gains to be made through cooperation, then we’re up for that too.
Climate change has faced a perfect storm in the first months of 2010. Revelations about climate science coincided with an unusually cold winter in the northern hemisphere and the uncertain outcome to the global summit in Copenhagen.
We and our colleagues in the Global Climate Network of think tanks stand squarely behind the overwhelming scientific evidence which points to the heavy hand of humans in climatic changes that we can already see.
But even if we were successful in getting everyone to agree that climate change is man made, we would still struggle to get them to agree to the kinds of changes we need to make to reduce carbon emissions for reasons of climate protection alone. Thankfully, there are other, extremely persuasive and, in the minds of many citizens, more pressing reasons why moving towards a clean energy economy as quickly as possible are highly desirable.
A recent study looking at jobs in clean energy production from the GCN, our ground-breaking research network has insights into just one good reason why we should take carbon out of our economies other than for climate protection.
In each of our countries, the news is very, very encouraging. Installing wind, solar and other clean energy technology en masse will create good job opportunities and, moreover, these will significantly outnumber any losses in high-carbon industries.
In China, for instance, our work shows that hitting existing government wind, hydro and solar power targets could create 6.79 million jobs. In addition, if the Chinese economy expands its services, bioenergy and forestation sectors and reduces its reliance on basic industry, a further 20 million jobs could be created with significant savings in carbon.
Because the economy is expanding so fast, any losses will be in terms of fewer opportunities rather than actual reductions – we calculate these to be around 17.38 million. This means that even these fairly modest measures will lead to 10 million new, additional jobs in China
In the US the picture is similarly positive. While much has been written about the hurdles faced in getting a climate bill through the Senate, the clean energy measures in the stimulus package currently being rolled out are likely to create as many as 700,000 new, low-carbon jobs. If the Senate was to pass something like the bill that cleared the House of Representatives last year, then we could add over a million jobs to this tally.
The sum of our collective work in the Global Climate Network study suggests that more than 20 million new employment opportunities can be created between now and 2020 just in low-carbon energy industries across nine leading economies. This will not happen by accident, but only through concerted action, including by government.
Setting targets for renewable energy is only the start. Subsidies, loan guarantees, skills and training packages, centres of excellence, technology competitions and pilot schemes will all be necessary.
Out of the Running, a report from Center for American Progress, shows that the starting gun for the clean energy race has already been fired and argues that the US should be a leading competitor. China already is. As advocates of action on climate change in our respective countries, we stand ready to participate in the race and we are urging our respective governments to ensure they take the lead.
But there are also opportunities for cooperation. For instance, many think carbon capture and storage (CCS) will be an important technology in the next two decades but its viability needs to be demonstrated.
As a report by CAP and the Asia Society, released last November, showed convincingly if the US and China work together on some of the technical challenges and pilot it where it is most needed, we can bring forward the date by which we either move forward and fit CCS on a wide scale or drop it in favour of alternative approaches.
Competition and collaboration on low-carbon technology will help intensify the innovation process and – hopefully – reduce costs.
The massive economic potential in deploying new technologies, not least in terms of job creation, will help win people round. The clean energy race is on and we’re up for it.
Van Jones is a Senior Fellow at Center for American Progress, founder of ‘Green for All’ and former adviser to President Obama on green jobs. Pan Jiahua is Executive Director of the Research Centre for Sustainable Development at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and one of twelve members of China’s National Climate Change Expert Committee. Both are members of the Global Climate Network.
Topics: 2010, Asia, bioenergy, Britain, business, CAP, carbon emissions, Center for American Progress, China, clean energy, clean energy technologies, climate change, climate protection, climate summit, conservation, Copenhagen, economic development, economic recovery, Economy, employment, energy, environment, Global Climate Network, Governance, government, Great Britain, greenhouse gas, high carbon industry, investment, jobs, low carbon jobs, moniter, monitor, news, Obama Administration, Pacific, renwable eneryg, space race, technology, U.K., U.S., UK, United Kingdom, United States, White House
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