A new paper published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation reviews the negative impacts and societal consequences of Western demands for developing countries to adopt Net Zero policies. [emphasis, links added]
Western governments increasingly demand that poor and developing countries switch to renewable energy to achieve Net Zero economies.
Pressure is exerted through numerous mechanisms, including trade barriers, which directly affect these countries’ already struggling populations and economies.
The paper reveals that forcing developing countries to repeat the costly mistakes of Western decarbonization policies threatens the well-being and livelihoods of billions of people worldwide.
The author of the report, Canadian professor Ismet Ugursal, said:
“The poor in the developing and developed world urgently need access to more and cheaper energy to improve their standard of living. To reduce and eradicate poverty, economic growth and increased energy use are necessary, not optional.”
In most developed countries, governments provide grants and subsidies for renewable energy that are uneconomic and unsustainable without billions in handouts.
Since poor households can rarely afford these renewable energy systems, they don’t benefit from them, yet perversely, it is their taxes and subsidies that fund these initiatives.
Professor Ugursal said:
“Objectives such as Net Zero and degrowth are therefore not credible. They are misguided follies, which will be discarded sooner rather than later, as the harms they cause to everyone, but especially the very poor, become clear. At this point in technological advancement, the only light at the end of the tunnel seems to be increased utilization of nuclear energy.”
Ismet Ugursal: The Ethics of Decarbonization for the Poor (pdf)
