That the world needs to transition to a green economy and follow an alternate vision of growth and development that is both self-sustainable and benign to the environment is not in doubt at all. What needs to be, however, not forgotten is the fact that such a seminal change in the growth model followed by the world cannot come about by good intentions alone. Merely expounding the virtues of wind, solar, geothermal, and other forms of sustainable and non-polluting energy sources without understanding and accounting for the immense challenges that come in the way of implementing such a paradigm change in energy generation methodologies will inevitably lead to failure.
Like it or not, fossil fuels are here to stay for a long time. Till the time sufficient technological progress is made in ensuring alternative forms of energy generation are cheaper and more efficiently and conveniently available than fossil fuels, we will continue to use them. That is likely to be the likely scenario, at least for the foreseeable future.
There really is no perfect substitute for fossil fuels in terms of wide-scale availability and ever-improving technology for extracting or producing these. It is important to remember that the advent of the fossil fuel age brought about tremendous improvements in the lives of people around the world, setting them on the course of unimaginable progress. Life in the pre-fossil fuel age wasn’t as rosy or utopian as one might imagine.
People would clear away vast tracts of forests to use as firewood and building materials. Animal-drawn carts and carriages led to cities, towns, and villages becoming exceedingly dirty and diseases-prone on account of vast amounts of horse and cattle dung lying about on the streets. The modern global economy has come about because of the industrial revolution, which would not have been possible without fossil fuels. That has immense significance in the history of mankind, given that the industrial revolution allowed millions of people to emerge from poverty.
It, in effect, made the modern world we see around us.[1] That was how things were, but the world is at a tipping point with regard to the climate crisis brought about by global warming that has been, to a very large extent, caused by the humongous fossil fuel-powered global economy.
Challenges faced in transitioning to a green economy
There are numerous challenges faced in transitioning to a green economy, the least of which is the high upfront cost accrued because of the adoption of green technology in terms of creating new infrastructure, retrofitting existing infrastructure and facilities, and training people in the use of the new technology. Besides, implementing green technology solutions is a long-term process that involves massive amounts of investment with no prospects of profitable returns for a very long time.
Also, there is a limit to how much ground can be used as an alternative source of energy, like wind and solar cover, when it comes to completely replacing conventional sources of energy. If alternative green sources of energy cannot account for more than a quarter of the final energy consumption demand, can the world afford to move to these technologies at any time in the distant future?[2]
It is all very well for nations around the world to set up green energy transition goals, but any forced or coercive measures to bring around this change may prove counterproductive. This is something that developing countries like India, which have a long way to go before they can be considered fully developed, have to be cognizant of when planning their growth strategies for the coming decades.
Instead of using a green technology or nothing approach, what needs to be done to achieve global sustainability goals is to look at technology-agnostic policies that make it possible for all kinds of clean energy technologies to be given an equal opportunity to prove their worth. Advances in clean fossil technologies, for instance, may show the way for developing countries like India, where the demand for energy is expected to grow enormously as their economies grow in the years ahead. Natural gas, primarily comprising methane, for instance, emits half as much carbon dioxide when burnt than coal.
What can also be done to clean up the environmental pollution caused by the use of fossil fuels is to capture the carbon dioxide generated and store it underground using the technique of carbon capture and sequestration.[3] One can also try to enhance the efficiency of fossil fuel-run power plants. This will lead to a lower consumption of fuel and a lower amount of carbon dioxide emission.
What ultimately needs to be done is to find an integrated system of energy production and consumption that leaves a minimal impact on the environment, allowing it to repair itself and recover. Advocating romantic notions of living entirely off sunlight, air, and naturally occurring geothermal energy may prevent us from looking at the issue objectively and coming up with an environment-friendly growth and development policy that will actually work.
[1] https://www.brookings.edu/articles/why-are-fossil-fuels-so-hard-to-quit/#:~:text=We%20haven't%20found%20a,largely%20true%20for%20natural%20gas.
[2] https://energypost.eu/the-dangers-of-green-technology-forcing/
[3] https://news.stanford.edu/2017/10/05/future-energy-fossil-fuels/