Energy technology (ET) is going to be the next global industry and one that will change the way people do business in future.
This is according to multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning author and New York Times columnist, Thomas Friedman, who recently spoke at a business breakfast in Johannesburg, hosted by the School of Management at the University of the Free State in association with the Altron Group and its subsidiary, Altech Autopage Cellular.
His talk focused on the 'green' phenomenon, and the global move to save the earth before it is too late. “It will take a green revolution before things start to change and before we can save the world,” Friedman said. “It requires a World War two-size event to take place, but we need to do it without Pearl Harbour.
“We are currently having a green party, not a green revolution. It is only when people get hurt that we can call it a revolution and when change will start to happen for real. When the word green disappears from our vocabulary, then there will be a green revolution,” he argued.
Friedman explained that in future there will be no such thing as a 'green' building; it will simply be a building, and when the point is reached where, if it is not green, people won't be able to sell it, then a revolution will begin taking place.
According to him, there are five global mega-trends influencing the world's development today. These include energy and natural resources; petro-dictatorships, climate change, energy poverty and biodiversity loss.
“The future of the 21st century depends on how we handle these five global mega-trends,” Friedman said. “These mega-trends are incredible opportunities masquerading as problems and all five problems have the same solution - supplying abundant, cheap, clean and reliable electrons - energy technology.”
Friedman said solving this issue is a problem for innovators and not regulators and that individuals and businesses must take the lead. He added that non-energy companies can make a difference too, and cited as an example the case of Walmart, which has told its truck fleet supplier to double its fuel efficiency, or the company will not use them again.
“Price matters when you talk about green. If we do not put a higher price on dirty fuels and subsidise clean fuels we won't be able to go green and have a green evolution. We must create a demand for green,” he stated.
“If we pull off green it will be the greatest feat the world has ever done in the industrial times.”
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