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Where there is consumption, there is likely to be some waste. From a purely business perspective, no one would like waste. Businesses spend time and money to ensure that operations are efficient with the most optimum consumption of material resources and time. Therefore, building a low carbon global economy would be a natural progression for us.
Building a truly low carbon economy is not just for the governments. It is a collective responsibility of all. This concept is necessitated by the consequences of industrialisation — the spiralling impact of mass consumption. Beyond the esoteric definitions, a low carbon economy would be that which is sustainable today as well as tomorrow. Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘’The difference between what we do and what we are capable of doing would suffice to solve most of the world’s problems.’’
Aim of a low carbon economy
The aim of a low carbon economy is to integrate all productive aspects of the economy around technologies that produce energy and materials with minimal greenhouse gas emissions. It is to ensure that populations, buildings, machines and devices use energies and materials efficiently.
From the perspective of an oil & gas company, low carbon economy means decoupling economic growth and consumption of carbon resources. It is perhaps ironical and a cruel twist of fate that just when the developing world have begun to industrialise and break out of decades of poverty, we have to deal with the blow of global climate change.
The status of developing countries from a development perspective can at best described as ‘work in progress’. Suddenly, a decade of prosperity in the developing countries is being targeted and people often forget the rampant exploitation of resources by the developed world for over a century.
The World Resources Institute estimates, in terms of historical emissions, show industrialised countries account for roughly 80% of the carbon dioxide build-up in the atmosphere till date. Since 1950, the US has emitted a cumulative total of roughly 50.7 billion tonne of carbon, while China (4.6 times more populous) and India (3.5 times more populous) have emitted only 15.7 and 4.2 billion tonne respectively. Annually, more than 60% of global industrial carbon dioxide emissions originate in industrialised countries, where only about 20% of the world’s population resides.
Of course, this is not to shy away from the responsibility of mitigating climate change. For the developed world, climate change is a sporadic…