Clean energy eminently affordable without sacrificing living standards

THE United Nations (UN) Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), in its fifth assessment report completed April 12, has concluded that catastrophic climate change can be averted without sacrificing living standards.The compilation, captioned ‘Mitigation of Climate Change’, concludes that the transformation required to a world of clean energy is eminently affordable.
It is the basis for a renewed push for countries to take this route, particularly since the UN document makes it clear the cheapest and least risky route to dealing with global warming is to abandon all dirty fossil fuels in

coming decades, the compendium said.
The documentation was disclosed before the combined Opposition, A Partnership for National Unity (APNU) and the Alliance for Change (AFC), slashed funding for one of Guyana’s flagship transformational projects in the area of renewable energy, the Amaila Falls Hydro-power Project (AFHP).
In the 2014 Budget estimates, both parties supported the allocation of $1.3B for the provision of the Amaila access road and related structures, under the Ministry of Public Works budgetary allocation.
However, the $16.8B for the actual project, which was listed under the Ministry of Finance’s 2014 allocation, was disapproved by the parties.

HYDROPOWER PLANT
The undertaking involves the construction of a hydropower plant in the area of west-central Guyana, where the Amaila and Kuribrong rivers meet and electricity produced there will be delivered to Guyana’s capital, Georgetown and its second largest town, Linden.
The AFHP is expected to result in substantial savings to the nation’s coffers, particularly in terms of foreign exchange and the purchase of heavy fuel oil. The potential benefits of a more stable and reliable source of energy, through the advance of hydroelectricity, was also spotlighted spotlighted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), last December, as an area for continued focus.
On July 18, last year, the combined Opposition defeated the Hydro Electric Power (Amendment) Bill and last August, the Government took the issue back to the National Assembly and, while it received the support of the AFC, APNU voted down both bill and motion.
President Donald Ramotar’s position is that economies must serve the people, not vice versa, and with an anticipated saving of $9B in electricity subsidies, as well as $40B on the fuel bill, enormous contributions can be made to the infrastructural development, particularly needed in Guyana’s hinterland, to aid and accelerate economic progress.
The economist, Professor Ottmar Edenhofer, who led the IPCC team, said: “It doesn’t cost the world to save the planet.”
He contends that the renewed call for a focus on renewable energy is supported by science.
According to the IPCC report, diverting hundreds of billions of dollars from fossil fuels into renewable energy and cutting energy waste would shave just 0.06 percent off expectant annual economic growth rates of 1.3 percent to three percent.

CARBON EMISSIONS
The new IPCC proposition warns that carbon emissions have soared in the last decade and are now growing at almost double the previous rate. But its comprehensive analysis found rapid action can still limit global warming to the internationally agreed safe limit, if low carbon energy triples or quadruples by 2050.
The authoritative documentation also dismisses fears that cutting carbon emissions would wreck the world economy.
Concluding four years of intense scientific collaboration by hundreds of authors from around the world, this document responds to the request of the world’s governments for a comprehensive, objective and policy neutral assessment of the current scientific knowledge on mitigating climate change.
It was adopted on April 12 in Berlin after intense debates with governments and consists of 16 chapters with more than 2,000 pages.
Written by 235 authors from 58 countries and reviewed externally by 900 experts, most prominent is the 33-page Summary for Policymakers (SPM) that was approved by all 193 countries.
At a first glance, the summation does not sound spectacular but more like a truism often heard over the years, although it, indeed, has something new to offer.
The Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) provides a clear and up to date view of the current state of scientific knowledge relevant to climate change.