BURSTING THE “CARBON BUBBLE” GLOBAL ISSUES WITH EXTINGUISHING THE WORLDS DEPENDENCE ON FOSSIL FUEL

I recently wrote about “is the world finally ready to go green.” Over the past decade, the world has become extremely vocal in regards to decreasing our reliance on fossil fuels and reducing our carbon footprint. Although it is widely agreed that this path is a path that is necessary, there is a potential for a problem of epic proportion that could be a byproduct of this global strategy. The World Bank’s top climate official recently stated, “The transition from fossil fuels must be carefully managed to avoid an economically disastrous bursting of the “carbon bubble.”

The world’s reliance on oil, gas and coal since the industrial revolution has ingratiated these fossil fuels into our everyday society and placed them front and center in our global economy. A major shift to renewable energy sources could cause a financial disaster within many of the world’s major economies that contain institutions that are heavily invested in carbon based fuels.

This December in Paris, the United Nations plans on laying out a comprehensive plan to dramatically reduce carbon emissions. However, this plan will have major ramifications on how economies around the world can enact this plan without overly destabilizing oil companies and carbon-intensive industries, which already face a growing divestment movement, said Rachel Kyte, the World Bank’s special envoy for climate change.

It turns out that our global march towards a carbon free world is not without hazards and can cause a whole new set of economic issues. This will mean a complete overhaul of how economies invest, major changes in the transportation sector and extreme modifications to industrial infrastructure. This will mean changing how cities operate and change the way governments set their budgets.

The issues of turning the world into a “green planet” are far more complicated than simply getting everyone on board. This will be an event that will cost trillions of dollars and jeopardize the economic stability of hundreds of nations. This is not to say that this can’t or shouldn’t be done. It simply means that there are many other things that have to be well thought out, agreed upon and timely executed to effectively move towards a greener tomorrow.

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Matt Helland
Senior Vice President – North American Energy Advisory

Sources:
http://www.energy-daily.com
http://news.yahoo.com