Trick or treat

It's no small irony that the world's so-called seventh billionth child was born on Halloween, given the trick-or-treat future it faces in the coming century.

Their approach has absolutely no redeeming features, except that it keeps them in billion-dollar profits.

Lezette Engelbrecht, online features editor, ITWeb

The UN's recent report on population growth, with 31 October symbolising the day the global population reached seven billion, contains some sobering facts about the world's ability to sustain life.

One of the major issues, of course, is how a global populace booming like never before (it's predicted we'll hit 10 billion by 2050) is going to manage on the resources of a planet already straining to provide. Especially when the developing nations, home to the bulk of this growing army of people, are set on further economic development - a legitimate, but nonetheless problematic objective.

Given the huge energy inputs this will require, and with 1.5 billion people already without access to electricity, an energy revolution is inevitable. All that remains to be seen is whether it will comprise a second round of established generation methods, which would be catastrophic in a warming world, or a new reign of cleaner technologies, which would usher in an entirely new energy ecosystem.

It's a race with few rules and little fairness, as the desperate but moneyed fossil fuel contingent dresses old practices in new clothes, peddling its wares to eager economies with open pockets.

Efforts to find and mine new fossil fuel deposits are both illogical and dangerous, and the fact that it's even considered as an option for future energy supply is a testament to the influence of this industry. Their approach has absolutely no redeeming features, except that it keeps them in billion-dollar profits, while impoverishing the rest of us environmentally, socially and economically - if not immediately, then in the long run.

Why spend billions trying to find pockets of oil and coal in some of the most pristine parts of the world (the Arctic is one of the areas being considered), when you have sources of abundant energy freely and easily available, which don't require intensive mining or extensive transport systems to reach people.

One major reason, of course, is because the true costs of fossil fuels aren't factored into the equation. Renewable energies are only perceived as expensive, because the world's economic systems don't put a price on the environmental and social damage of a fossil fuel-based economy.

It's a fact the World Bank's Clean Energy czar Daniel Kammen points to in a recent interview, noting that commodities such as health and the ability to preserve nature aren't given a value partly because they're hard to quantify, but also because the global economy is fixated on one metric - money.

Whether economists recognise it or not, the real cost of fossil fuels is bankrupting the environment, and stealing from the seven billion people who now share the planet. A local example is the 4 800MW Kusile power plant, which features in a Greenpeace report this week, unpacking the True cost of coal.

It contains some staggering finds: in addition to the R180 billion being spent on Kusile, South Africans will have to pay up to R60.6 billion per year for the external costs associated with it. Essentially, we'll be paying to breath toxic air, have our natural surroundings destroyed by coal mining, and for water to be diverted from homes into the bowels of Kusile.

All that money will also see to it that SA's climate change contribution goes up by 10%, thanks to the 37 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions Kusile will spew out each year.

At this point, the usual objections about energy security come in, which is why the report findings are even more compelling: “If the same amount of attention and resources were applied to renewable energy, we could develop five times Kusile's proposed power generation capacity from clean energy sources, with only 30% of Kusile's external costs.”

Simply put, if consumers were to pay the full cost of Kusile's coal-powered electricity, prices would increase by almost 500%, while just R20 billion would generate five times Kusile's output with virtually zero CO2 emissions.

The fact is, the idea that renewables are too expensive, too difficult to implement and not sufficient to meet baseload needs are antiquated concepts that have doggedly stuck around, re-circulated by the industries that don't stand to benefit from a new energy ecosystem. Never mind that it's better for people and planet, for sustainable employment and the ability to combat climate change. All these facts are widely available to anyone with a minute to run an online search.

There's a future out there waiting to be grasped - one that offers a cleaner, more sustainable way forward. Developing countries shouldn't be deprived of the right to develop their economies and better the lives of their citizens, and it's completely possible to do it without threatening environmental sustainability.

Perhaps the most exciting prospect is that developing countries can alleviate the problems of unemployment, limited electricity access and climate change, while moving into the next energy age, all while bypassing the intermittent dirty fuel phase the developed world underwent.

The emerging economies in Africa and Asia have a chance to usher in a radically transformed energy landscape, creating a system that values life above profit. A new UN report tracking change over the past 20 years shows the contribution of renewable energy to the world's energy supply stood at an estimated 16% in 2010. Solar and wind energy accounted for only 0.3% of total global energy. That's not a window of opportunity, it's a double barn door thrown wide open.

We can stay inside, searching for cracks of light peeking through the floorboards, or we can step outside into a flood of sunshine. We can be deterred by the massive petroleum companies that care for nothing but holding onto their monopolies, or the critics who yammer on about regulatory difficulties and pricing, or we can take a firm hold of the facts and figures, and step into the next energy age. The door's open.