Is the G7 recent decision to block financing fossil fuels hypocritical and unethical while these fuels are at 85% of G7 power?
FINANCE CRITICAL
The G7 recent decarbonization push blocking financing new much needed rural electrification in Africa seems toverkill and immoral.
"Once upon a time, social justice was synonymous with equal access to modern amenities — electric lighting so poor children could read at night, refrigerators so milk could be kept on hand, and washing machines to save the hands and backs of women. Malthus was rightly denounced by generations of socialists as a cruel aristocrat who cloaked his elitism in pseudo-science, and claimed that Nature couldn't possibly feed any more hungry months.
"Now, at the very moment modern energy arrives for global poor — something a prior generation of socialists would have celebrated and, indeed, demanded — today's leading left-wing leaders advocate a return to energy penury. The loudest advocates of cheap energy for the poor are on the libertarian Right, while The Nation dresses up neo-Malthusianism as revolutionary socialism.
"Left-wing politics was once about destabilizing power relations between the West and the Rest. Now, under the sign of climate justice, it's about sustaining them.”
"Why are climate-change models so flawed? Because climate science is so incomplete - The Boston Globe
"As they juggle competing demands in responding to the pandemic, developing countries are going to need strong support. Developed-country governments, multilateral organizations and other donors must help fill the gap.
"Countries such as the Netherlands, Norway and Britain are already strong supporters of efforts to build markets for clean cooking solutions, as are groups such as the World Health Organization and the World Bank. This support must continue, and where possible be expanded, while new donors must step up to join their efforts to address the household air pollution crisis. This issue is more critical than ever, and cannot be solved without concessional, public sector finance.
"Public and private capital providers also have an important role to play. Many clean cooking businesses are pioneering scalable business models and high-impact technologies, but are at a pivotal stage of development. Impact investors must urgently offer those businesses the financial resources to ensure their long-term sustainability and ability to provide a growing market with modern cooking solutions.
"We know that a person exposed to household air pollution will likely have a worse outcome if they are exposed to the coronavirus. As we brace ourselves for the next wave of the current pandemic – and possibly future pandemics of an unknown nature – it is more important than ever for governments, donors, investors and others to continue their work to bring clean, affordable and appropriate cooking solutions to the three billion people who live each day without them.
"Providing emergency solutions for clean fuels while reducing household air pollution is not only critical to saving lives, but also to promoting resilience and recovery in this changing landscape.
Hajia Samira Bawumia is the Second Lady of Ghana, and Dymphna van der Lans is CEO of the Clean Cooking Alliance.
COVID-19, air pollution and cooking: a deadly connection
"All government action has a cost benefit analysis often ignored and is so much ignored in the climate change debate. The cost of demonizing CO2 industry emissions is to take away the benefit of cheap and plentiful coal powered grid electricity in the developing world particularly India, China and Africa.
"Grid electricity is the answer to this environmental/health tragedy and fossil fuels are the necessary resource, especially cheap coal power and cleaner natural gas. These phony efforts are pathetic failing millions who will die annually from this number one environmental hazard. Some of these deaths must be a direct result of insane carbon footprint pseudo science and the fall out from the unscientific Paris Accord.
by Hajia Samira Bawumia & Dymphna van der Lans | @SBawumia | Clean Cooking Alliance
EXPANDING THE GRID WITH COAL OR NATURAL GAS IS THE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE.
Philip M
"5.0 out of 5 stars A clear, logical message that fossils fuels are not dirty, but vital to our survival.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2019
Verified Purchase
Epstein takes a different approach to the discussion about climate change and its alleged causes. He makes clear that for humanity to survive we must continue using coal, oil and gas to power our industries and help developing countries. Without these fossil fuels billions of people will be deprived of the energy that has helped us create our modern civilisation. Many millions will die and many more will live miserable lives of hardship. Epstein provides excellent graphics illustrating the benefits fossil fuels have brought to humanity.
"Right now 85% of our power worldwide is derived from fossil fuels. He acknowledges there are risks associated with them but explains that by using modern technology we have eliminated those risks. And the alternative renewable energy sources are simply nowhere near capable of providing sufficient energy to power our societies.
"Epstein also demonstrates that the manufacture of so-called green renewable technologies is not as green as we would like to think. For example, he reveals the appalling devastation in one of China’s most polluted cities caused by the manufacture of neodymium, the element used in the magnets of wind turbines. Vast lakes of bubbling toxic waste covered in black dust where once lay fields of corn and wheat. A “green revolution” in the UK perhaps. But a humanitarian disaster for the Chinese who are dying from the acrid poisonous stench.
"Epstein portrays a powerful and emotional message with great clarity and logic. Fossil fuels do not make a naturally safe, clean environment and make it unsafe and dirty - they take a naturally dangerous, dirty environment and make it clean and safe.