The race for the clean energy future comes to Washington, DC today — only symbolically if the US doesn’t seize the moment. Energy ministers from 20 countries that account for over 80% of the world’s global warming pollution are in the US to discuss how to speed up the deployment of clean energy throughout the world, as a part of the Clean Energy Ministerial. The subplot of the meeting will be which of these countries will come out sprinting and which ones will begin by jogging in the race for the clean energy future.
The meeting hosted by the US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu will include energy ministers from Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Norway, Russia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. This is the first time that energy ministers from these key countries have focused solely on clean energy — when they typically meet they have oil, coal, and other energy sources also on their agenda. I hope they are as ambitious as this letter from leading groups emphasizes.
The race for the clean energy future is on. The clean energy future will be a $13 trillion market over the next two decades. The countries that enter the race by sprinting will tap into this growing demand for the technologies, industries, and the jobs of this century. Those countries that don’t join the race or only tentatively enter (start out jogging) will be left in the dust or will come up short. In fact, just last year alone $162 billion was invested in clean energy (as I discussed here).
China is in the race and leading… Last year China overtook the US in clean energy investment — with $34.6 billion compared to the US at $18.6 billion. Looking at some of the trends in key clean energy technologies such as wind and solar provides some concrete examples of China’s surge. China’s top three domestic wind manufacturers doubled their global market share from about 12% to almost 23% from 2008 to 2009 (according to BTM Consulting). In 2009, 50% of solar PV cells produced in the world came from China and Taiwan (according to GTM Research).
India is also in the race…In 2009, India invested $2.3 billion in clean energy — growing at over 72% over the last 5 years (according to data from Bloomberg New Energy Finance). While India has consistently been one of the top countries for wind installations, it is also now embarking on a significant effort to deploy solar (as my colleague discussed).
US jogging? While the US was 2nd in clean energy investment last year, it lost its top slot to China. And if the European Union is considered as a whole the US would be in 3rd place (see this report from the Pew Charitable Trusts). The US played a leading role in early stages of developing many of the clean energy technologies that are dominating the market today, yet on a number of fronts the US is lagging. Sometime over the next 3 weeks, the US Senate will debate (and hopefully vote to pass) a climate and energy bill which will send a concrete signal that the US wants to be sprinting in the clean energy race.
So the energy ministers from these 20 countries meet with this backdrop in mind — a race for the clean energy future is happening as we speak and some are full of energy and others are unsure where they want to go. These key countries will be making critical choices in the coming years — will they embrace clean energy or will they choose to sit on the sidelines.
It is time for the US to get off the bench and invest in a clean energy future.
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Better hurry & catch up, instead of "dragging heels" screaming into the 21st Century. Otherwise, left in the "dust" of the desert, literally.
Keep wasting time on "racism" & "tea", that'll really get the country FORWARD! NOT.
http://eideard.wordpress.com/2009/07/03/theres-a-green-giant-growing-in-chinas-gobi-desert/
We've just came out of the "Lost & Dithering Decade", with 2 Oil-Men in the White House that took the country into 2 "Wars for Oil".
NOW is the time to "Seize the Moment". And, "Get Moving". There's lots of "Catch-Up" to do!
The little recognized life threatening result of the Gulf cataclysm may provide the missing public support for creating what amounts to an insurance policy for humanity.
See today's edit of What to Do! at http://www.aesopinstitute.org The subtitle is: A 5 Step Program to Increase the Odds We Will Survive the Oil Disaster!
400 parts per million of carbon has recently been found to be the Arctic Tipping Point, which could conceivably endanger us all. We are presently approaching 390 ppm. The safe limit is 350 ppm.
Emergency action is now urgent.
Little known and hard to fathom breakthroughs involving radically new distributed energy technologies can help to supersede oil much more rapidly than might be readily understood or believed.
See Moving Beyond Oil on the same Aesop Institute website.
All distributed renewable energy should rapidly proceed on a 24/7 basis. Congress needs to provide whatever incentives are necessary to make that possible without delay.
We need robust steps to effectively attack the inertia.
Fossil fuels may soon threaten the lives of every person on earth!
Meeting the challenge effectively requires a wake up call.
Using revolutionary new energy conversion systems that are inherently decentralized should rapidly become a priority. Round the clock validation, development and production is possible.
Future cars can become power plants when suitably parked. Later models may pay for themselves as investments.
This nation can lead the way!