EVERYBODY WANT TO COOL THE WORLD:

How to cool the world: A new report on the state of the planet offers some grounds for optimism (The Economist, May 10th 2007)

Some greenhouse-gas emissions, as the IPCC points out, can be cut at no cost at all—through straightforward measures such as improving insulation and binning wasteful incandescent light bulbs. Such measures could both save people and companies money, and save the planet from a chunk of carbon emissions. At present, they don't bother to do much, because electricity bills are not threatening enough; but governments might take a hand. The European Commission, for instance, is planning to ban incandescent light bulbs in two years' time. Such measures could make a difference, given that lighting accounts for 17% of global power consumption.

In other areas, low-carbon technologies would be more expensive than conventional ones—but not necessarily exorbitant. In power generation, for instance, the biggest single source of carbon, the cost of wind and solar power has fallen sharply over the past couple of decades to the point where, in favourable locations, wind power can compete, in price terms, with more conventional forms of energy. Better still, the cost is likely to fall further. Wind turbines are going to go on getting bigger, and thin-film technology is likely to bring down the price of producing solar panels.

Coal, as the IPCC recognises, remains a big challenge. It is enjoying a revival, partly because gas is expensive, and partly because coal supplies are widely distributed around the globe at a time when big energy consumers are keen to reduce their dependency on oil from politically volatile places such as the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. Coal is the dirtiest fuel; but there are a number of projects to capture carbon dioxide emissions from coal and store them under the earth's surface. If that can be done on a large scale and at reasonable cost (a big if), it offers a quick fix for a sizeable proportion of emissions.

But to bring such technologies to market, the cost of generating energy from fossil fuels will have to rise or the cost of generating energy from clean sources will have to fall, or both. That can be achieved by taxing carbon or subsidising clean energy, or both.

Rumor has it, the reason they burned witches in the Dark Ages was because they predicted that in the future Man's chief worries would be overeating and warmth.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 10, 2007 3:58 PM