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The global cost of securing a clean energy future is rising by the year, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned Monday, estimating that an additional $44 trillion of investment was needed to meet 2050 carbon reduction targets. Releasing its biennial "Energy Technology Perspectives" report in Seoul, the agency said electricity would increasingly power the world's economies in the decades to come, rivalling oil as the dominant energy carrier. Surging electricity demand posed serious challenges, said IEA executive director Maria van der Hoeven.
"We must get it right, but we're on the wrong path at the moment," Van der Hoeven told reporters in the South Korean capital.
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$44 Trillion Needed for Clean Energy Future
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We are now enjoying total mutual interaction in an imaginary hot tub ...
(Score: 1, Troll) by khallow on Thursday May 15 2014, @10:10PM
Governments don't either. The only difference is that markets are really good at what they do. Well, that and that there actually are 30-year returns in a market.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday May 15 2014, @10:26PM
Tell that to Mr Deng, Mr Yoshida and Mr Kohl.
On your way to wikipedia, don't forget to check the French Nuclear power development too.
And if that's not enough to counter dumb ideological parroting, ask yourself why public schools and colleges are free or cheap.
(Score: 2) by khallow on Thursday May 15 2014, @10:51PM
Those are people not governments. And while Singapore is still relatively future-oriented, the same can't be said for Japan and Germany, the countries of the other two politicians you mentioned.
They aren't. Other people pay for that. As to "dumb ideological parroting" who is claiming something is "free or cheap" merely because the consumers of the good or service aren't the ones paying for the good or service?
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday May 15 2014, @11:29PM
You've got the wrong Deng. I was referring to a more populous country, and how its successive governments since Deng have been doing really well in their planning of metaphorically kicking our asses.
If you think Japan and Germany are no longer future-oriented, you really haven't been paying attention.
Nice try, but 0 for 3: The whole point of free/cheap schools is that you pay for them with your massively higher future income. Considering that most governments finance themselves with debt, the cost of your school is actually repaid when you start paying taxes. Even if your government doesn't print debt, it's not stealing cash from your parents to pay for your school, it's investing with a pretty massive return, which will finance their old-age healthcare and their retirement.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday May 15 2014, @11:50PM
I wonder how you can reconcile your claim with your post here [soylentnews.org].
I guess evidence that they aren't so prescient can be ignored when it is inconvenient.
The obvious counterexamples to that assertion are Japan's current debt load (and its recent looting of the Japanese Postal Savings system) and Germany's suicidal energy policy.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday May 16 2014, @12:23AM
> I guess evidence that they aren't so prescient can be ignored when it is inconvenient.
You're right, they should have gotten out of third-world status by building excess renewable power using 80s tech and a worthless Renminbi, so that they'd be more ready to absorb the onslaught of Westerners ready to sell their grandma for a $5 labor cut and access to 1.3B poor people.
Since this thread started at "governments don't either [care much about potential 30-year returns]", I'm pretty sure that Mr Deng is sitting in his corner of afterlife, wondering if they would have sent him to the nuthouse, had he used the actual 2014 numbers as a prediction of the impact of his reforms.
Being so wildly successful that you get major ecological growing pains is not antithetic to caring about and planning to kick Capitalist ass on the world market while bringing almost a billion persons out of poverty.
China has a big problem. They could throw their massive trade surpluses at fixing their ecological issues and get results quickly, but they actually have to use that cash first to prop up the value of the US dollar and therefore their growth. So they have to tolerate pollution for a bit longer to protect their most sacred thing: stability.