I’ve been at the Reuter’s Energy Transition conference this week, and I came away optimistic that we can save the planet but am very worried that we are not moving nearly fast enough. Here’s what I came away with…
Fossil fuels are too cheap compared to green alternatives. The planetary impact is not priced in, and it needs to be. Perhaps through a carbon tax or my preference would be a stronger carbon trading system as this is already in place.
Market reform is not moving fast enough to drive change. I do not understand why we are fixated on System Marginal Pricing (SMP) as the only way of setting energy prices. Many dire warnings of the sky falling down if we even think of different mechanisms, but there has to be a better way.
Too many new, unproven, and competing energy technologies. Oil sits on the throne waiting for all of the pretenders to kill each other so that it never has to fight. Someone has to be brave enough to say ‘this is never going to work here’. One of the panellists said this about Hydrogen in Europe and even the Hydrogen rep agreed.
The turnaround in the USA’s energy policy from the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has been dramatic and shows what can be done when governments provide direction.
We need to be honest with people about what this will cost. In the UK the cost is estimated at £50bn a year, that’s just under £1000 each, so let’s say £3000 per household per year for the next 30 years. I don’t think the public know this as no one has told them. The price cap would need to be £5000 per year.
We also need to confront the reality of not acting. Being in New York at an energy conference this week when the sun disappeared behind forest fire smoke couldn’t have come at a more apt time. Fly down to the Maldives while they are still there.
