Baker Institute on cost and risk of green. Energy Futures Lab announced.
Continue to website...
An analysis by Jim Krane (Rice University Baker Institute)
finds that ‘commercial activity in fossil fuels is increasingly at odds
with global actions to reduce the threat of climate change.’ But fossil
fuels provides over 20% of GDP in two dozen nation states. Current
commitments to reducing emissions might mean forgoing $100 trillion in
revenues by 2050, representing ‘disruption to global affairs,
undermining national budgets and corporate balance sheets while
exposing stakeholders, including pension holders and ordinary citizens
in resource-exporting states, to myriad risks.’ Oil is less
exposed to environmental pressures than coal and gas because of its
role in transport. ‘Only’ one third of current conventional crude oil
reserves would need to be abandoned to meet climate change targets, as
opposed to half of gas and 82% of coal. Coal is already very exposed
having lost a combined 31,000 jobs and $30 billion in share value since
2010 in the US*.
~
Alberta’s
energy system is at the center of ‘complex, fragmented and divisive
debates’ including disputes over market access to Alberta’s oil,
disagreements about climate change and controversy over community
health. Natural Step Canada, Suncor, Shell and others have established the Energy Futures Lab
to accelerate the development of a ‘fit for the future’ energy system.
EFL director Chad Park stated, ‘Energy issues are not as black and
white as they seem, and Alberta has a very different story to tell.
With polarized debates about energy as a backdrop, more people are
joining us here in the very colorful middle ground and working together
to find ways for Alberta to lead in the transition to a low carbon
future.’