As major corporations appear to catch on to what individual scientists reported decades ago, the pressure on politicians will begin to shift. This is good news, but it isn’t clear that corporate comprehension will be accompanied by actions befitting the emergency conditions that have developed. With more than half of all wild animals gone and with increasing weather extremes, it does little good to say that clean air is better. Moreover, the petroleum industry will probably increase its political investments to counter any clean-energy attractions our politicians might feel.
As major corporations appear to catch on to what individual scientists reported decades ago, the pressure on politicians will begin to shift. This is good news, but it isn’t clear that corporate comprehension will be accompanied by actions befitting the emergency conditions that have developed. With more than half of all wild animals gone and with increasing weather extremes, it does little good to say that clean air is better. Moreover, the petroleum industry will probably increase its political investments to counter any clean-energy attractions our politicians might feel.
Originally posted on jpratt27:
A new report from Citibank found that acting on climate change by investing in low-carbon energy would save the world $1.8 trillion through 2040, as compared to a business-as-usual scenario. In addition, not acting will cost an additional $44 trillion by 2060 from the “negative effects” of climate change.The report, titled Energy Darwinism, looked at the predicted cost of energy over the coming decades, the costs of developing low carbon energy sources, and the implications of global energy choices.
“What we’re trying to do is to take an objective view at the economics of this situation and actually look at what the costs of not acting are, if the scientists are right,” Jason Channell, Global Head of Alternative Energy and Cleantech Research at Citi, told CNBC. “There is a cost to not doing this, and although there is a cost to acting, what we’re trying to do is to actually…
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