Green Growth

Start with Free Elections

Accordingly with Daron Acemoglu:

"And yet while Sachs and Diamond offer good insight into certain aspects of poverty, they share something in common with Montesquieu and others who followed: They ignore incentives. People need incentives to invest and prosper; they need to know that if they work hard, they can make money and actually keep that money. And the key to ensuring those incentives is sound institutions - the rule of law and security and a governing system that offers opportunities to achieve and innovate. That's what determines the haves from the have-nots - not geography or weather or technology or disease or ethnicity."

"Put simply: Fix incentives and you will fix poverty. And if you wish to fix institutions, you have to fix governments."

Greenhouse gases numbers

Nicholas Stern apunta algunas posibles tendencias, consecuencias y recomendaciones sobre el efecto de los gases de efecto invernadero:

1. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached 435 parts per million (ppm) of CO2-equivalent, compared with about 280 ppm before industrialization in the nineteenth century.

2. [C]oncentrations could reach 750 ppm by the end of the century. Should that happen, the probable rise in global average temperature relative to pre-industrial times will be 5˚C or more.

3. It has been more than 30 million years since the earth’s temperature was that high [5˚C]. The human species, which has been around for no more than 200,000 years, would have to deal with a more hostile physical environment than it has ever experienced.

4. To avoid the severe risks that would result from a rise in global average temperature of more than 2˚C, we must get atmospheric concentrations below 450 ppm. This will require a cut in annual global emissions from about 50 gigatonnes of CO2-equivalent today to below 35 gigatonnes in 2030, and less than 20 gigatonnes by 2050.

5. Today, per-capita annual emissions in the European Union are 12 tonnes, and 23.6 tonnes in the United States, compared to six tons for China and 1.7 tons for India. As the projections for 2050 suggest that the world’s population will be about nine billion, annual per-capita emissions must be reduced to approximately two tons of CO2-equivalent, on average, if the global annual total is to be less than 20 gigatonnes.

IRENA

Kandeh Yumkella in Project-Syndicate

A decade ago, renewable energy was viewed as an unwelcome offspring of fossil fuels, but the recent establishment of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) indicates that governments worldwide are taking “renewables” seriously. With mounting concerns about climate change and volatility in oil and other fossil-fuel prices, renewables are finally becoming a viable proposition.

Big business is spending billions of dollars to explore the opportunities that renewables can bring. There are serious plans to turn the Sahara desert’s heat and sunlight into Europe’s major power source, supplying energy to half a billion people. Some estimates suggest it could cost up to $60 billion to start sending Sahara power to Europe a decade from now. With public support, progress could be much faster. The price tags are huge, but the current economic and financial crisis has taught us not to be afraid of ten-digit numbers.

Sustainable Development

The key to climate change control lies in improved technology. We need to find new ways to produce and use energy, meet our food needs, transport ourselves, and heat and cool our homes that will allow us to cut back on oil, gas, coal, nitrogen-based fertilizer, and other sources of the climate-changing greenhouse gases.

Project Syndicate, Sachs

Innovation

"How to nurture innovation by creating an environment that stimulates and encourages individual freedom, creativity, and constructive criticism."
Montenegro