Greta and Economists on Climate Change
At the end of September Greta Thunberg was received at the UN: the General Assembly was strongly shaken by her reproaches against the inability of States to face the inexorable global warming.
The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guiterres, declared that "global emissions are growing. Temperatures are increasing. The consequences for oceans, forests, climate regimes, biodiversity, food production, water, employment, and, ultimately, the lives of human beings are already heavy, and are destined to worsen enormously. The scientific evidence is undeniable. Moreover, in many places, people do not need a diagram or graph to understand the climate crisis. Just look out the window. "
Meanwhile, the mobilization of young people is growing exponentially.
With this Movement we must dialogue, to direct it towards coherent and constructive objectives, which can only be inspired by the federal method.
Indeed, it is very clear that environmental degradation affects each level of government, from local authorities, through the EU and other regional organizations existing everywhere in the world, up to global institutions such as the UN. And it is also clear that without supranational global institutions, endowed with sufficient autonomy and own funds, it will never be possible to conduct a serious and effective action to intervene in a coordinated and stable way to remedy the environmental emergencies, of which the global warming is the most urgent and devastating one.
Faced with the gravity and urgency of climate change underway, many scholars have assumed positions of absolute pessimism. "There is nothing left to do" is the title of the last book by meteorologist Luca Mercalli.
On the other hand, we should mention the worried positions of illustrious scientists who believe that it is still possible to save the planet with energetic, rapid, effective initiatives that involve all the main countries emitting climate-changing gases, in the atmosphere:
-the authoritative economist at Yale University, William NORDHAUS, launched the proposal to establish a Climate Club that applies the principle that CO2 must have a price: "those who pollute more will have to pay more, so everyone will decide to use clean technologies".
According to Nordhaus, economic activities are at the root of climate change. Power plants, factories and automobiles, any production activity, anything we use or possess produces CO2 or other greenhouse gas emissions. But the economy is also part of the solution, because we are able to identify tools to solve the problem. The simplest is to raise the price of CO2 emissions.
- Lord Adain TURNER, former President of the British Confindustria, President of the Energy Transition Commission, clarifies that an economy with zero carbon emissions "is possible" but it is an objective that requires "effective public policies, such as carbon taxes and support for technological development ". Lord Turner clarifies that the green revolution involves the conversion of electricity production to renewable sources and it is possible because since 2009 the cost of renewable kWh has fallen by 80% and the share of batteries by 70%.
The electrification of energy can be done in every industrial sector, from mobility, to the construction of dwellings and to their maintenance, with contained costs and with a land use not exceeding 1% of the surface of the land.
We could not miss the voice of Jeremy RIFKIN, a long-term trend forerunner economist, who, in his latest work "A Global Green New Deal", draws a bold Economic Plan to save the Earth, in which he predicts the collapse of the fossil fuel civilization by 2028, due to the economic convenience that renewable sources will take to electricity production, provided that public institutions are able to intervene in the construction of public infrastructures necessary for the rapid transition to the post-carbon era.
Certainly, we are facing an epochal challenge and a production revolution that could also represent the most promising economic opportunity of our life.