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The world's fossil fuel companies risk wasting billions of dollars of investment by not taking global action to fight climate change seriously, according to the chief economist of the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Fatih Birol, who will take the top job at the IEA in September and is one of the world's most influential voices on energy, warned that companies making this mistake would also miss out on investment opportunities in clean energy.
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The World Bank and Bank of England have already warned of the serious risk climate action poses to trillions of dollars of fossil fuel investments and the G20 is investigating the risks. The think-tank Carbon Tracker has estimated that over $1tn (£0.6tn) of oil investments and $280bn of gas investments would be left uneconomic if the world's governments succeed in their pledge to limitglobal warming to 2C.
The warnings are based on policy proposals that are entirely creatures of human decisions rather than hard economic realities. Then again, all demand is ultimately the product of human decisions.
Original Submission
(Score: 3, Insightful) by gnuman on Wednesday July 15 2015, @04:48PM
5. Everyone believes they are not going to die.
Think about that. The most likely place a person will die (aside from warzones and some American suburbs) is because of traffic crashes, yet there is very little apprehension about that. When was the last time people actually obeyed the speed limit and drove under it? And then do a survey about apprehension about terrorism or ebola?
The same mentality applies to AGW. People don't believe that *their* actions are a cause of it. Just like they don't think that DUI or texting or talking on their phone is going to kill them and/or someone else. They believe they are "good people" and "good people" can't do "bad things".