Cutting carbon emissions is going to cost countries a lot and achieve fairly little good, said a controversial climate expert yesterday at the Apec CEO summit.
Dr Bjorn Lomborg, director for the Copenhagen Consensus Center, said that smarter policies should be adopted to tackle global warming, not “inordinately expensive” ones that ultimately have little effect.
“By the end of the century, the cost of cutting emissions would be US$40 trillion, and we’re not sure it will even work to reduce temperatures,” said Dr Lomborg.
Instead, he suggested that countries focus on policies such as spending at least 0.2 per cent of their gross domestic produce (GDP) on clean energy research and development.
“The idea is to make clean energy so cheap that everyone will switch over from fossil fuels anyway. When that happens, maybe in the middle of the century, it will make sense to cut emissions. Now, that’s a smart investment,” he said.
“I’m not saying we shouldn’t cut carbon emissions, I’m saying that we should cut smartly,” he added.
Dr Lomborg gained international attention in 2001 after publishing ‘The Skeptical Environmentalist’, a controversial book which asserts that many of the most-publicised claims and predictions on environmental issues are wrong.
The book was then embroiled in a case of scientific dishonesty, although such claims were later dismissed.
At a summit dialogue on the economics of climate change yesterday, Dr Lomborg reiterated his stance that the world should adopt “smart policies” and not exaggerate the dangers of climate change.
His position contrasted with that of Professor Tim Flannery, Australian of the Year in 2007 and chairman of the Copenhagen Climate Council, who said that Copenhagen was an opportunity for the “civilising of businesses” – to harness corporates to do good for society and the environment.
Prof Flannery also said that China could become the world’s top exporter of “green technology” if it carries out crucial energy and ecological reforms.
“For China, I am absolutely convinced that it will become the world leader in green tech,” he said.
Chief executive Ko Kheng Hwa of Temasek unit Singbridge International also weighed in on the issue, highlighting the importance for all future cities to be eco-cities given the rapid pace of urbanisation in the developing world.
Citing the Tianjin eco-city joint venture between Singapore and China, Mr Ko emphasised that the cities of the future must have “practicable, replicable and scalable concepts and technologies”.
The other panel member, Mr Dorjee Sun, chief executive of Carbon Conservation, told the audience that there is a global trend towards the valuation of natural assets such as forests that did not happen before.
“There are so many opportunities in this market, and we’re looking for leaders who believe in the value of these assets,” he said.
In a lively hour-long session moderated by Simon Tay, chairman of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, the audience also debated the issue of geo-engineering with the panelists.
Geo-engineering is a way of manipulating the earth’s climate artificially to counteract the effects of global warming.
While Dr Lomborg supported the idea of geo-engineering, such as marine cloud whitening to reflect more sunlight, others felt that it was a dangerous path to take due to the lack of documented research and understanding of the consequences.
Assoc Prof Tay noted yesterday that it was encouraging that Apec officials have started using the word “sustainable growth”, and that steps will be taken to liberalise the environmental goods and services sector in member economies.
