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Renewable energy in decline
Historic perspective and future forecasts
Many today believe that renewable energy will let us get off fossil fuels soon. Unfortunately, the facts say otherwise.
According to International Energy Agency data, 13.12% of the world’s energy came from renewables in 1971. In 2011, renewables’ share was actually lower, at 12.99%. Yet a new survey shows that Americans believe that the share of renewables in 2035 will be 30.2%. In reality, it will likely be 14.5%.
The solution is to innovate the price of renewables downward, so that they are able to outcompete fossil fuels eventually, as Lomborg explains in Slate and papers around the world. Translation in 6 languages available on Project Syndicate.
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Climate scares don't make for good policy
It made headlines around the world: the story of a melting Arctic that could release an immense amount of methane, dramatically increasing global warming and costing a phenomenal $60 trillion. But it was a scare story. Lomborg debunks it in The Financial Times.
"Of course, if you take an implausibly catastrophic event and run it through an implausibly pessimistic economic model, you get headlines, but you don’t get good policy."
It got a number of activists arguing for the same old, tired policies in FT, and you can see Lomborg's reply here.
Scare stories abound -- climate will cause more conflict, which Lomborg debunks here -- but panic doesn't help making smart policies. Instead we should focus on green innovation to push the cost down.
The article is also available in German ( Der Standard, Austria), Spanish ( El Tiempo, Colombia, and Expansión, El Salvador) and Swedish ( Expressen).
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Bee-mageddon? -
Die Another Day!
Despite lots of alarmist talk about bees dying from colony collapse disorder (CCD), the actual numbers tell a story very different to bee-pokalypse fears.
Overall, the CCD is a problem we need to tackle, but it is not by any stretch of the imagination the end of the world, as Lomborg explains on facebook.
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Eco-conscious or just unable to afford expensive power?
Green taxes are deeply regressive
Environmentalists celebrate that the average UK household has reduced its energy consumption 24.5% from 2005-11. Yet, the main cause is not green awareness but huge energy price hikes.
Over the past 8 years, UK household electricity prices have increased 50% in real terms. The graph below shows that it is the poor households that reduce. Actually, the rich didn't decrease their consumption at all.
This clearly shows how green taxes are mostly regressive -- percentage-wise they affect and hurt the poor the most.
From Lomborg's facebook.
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Coming soon
to amazon.co.uk and amazon.de
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Best wishes,
Zsuzsa Horvath
Executive Assistant to Bjorn Lomborg
US online phone number: +1-347-903-0979
Office cell in Budapest: +36-306920720
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