Global Compact International Yearbook 2013
47
Agenda
So why are we not doing it? In my view, there are two
main reasons:
1.
Too many people confuse the notions of price and cost.
We are told that renewable energy is more expensive than
fossil energy. This is a misunderstanding ripe with conse-
quence. All of the costs of renewable energy are included in
the price. The price of petrol, gas, or coal does not include
the entire cost: You do not pay for the 200 million years that
are necessary to replenish stocks, you do not pay for the oil
slicks, you do not pay for the wars that have already begun
and that will be extended in order to procure oil, and you
are not yet paying for the environmental cost of the CO
2
produced by fossil fuels.
We are comparing things that cannot be compared. Evidently,
the price of petrol is always less expensive than that of solar
energy, but the cost of petrol is much more expensive than
the equivalent cost of renewable energy.
2.
The second reason is that the sacrosanct laws of the market
no longer work in a speculative and globalized world. In the
past, you would have been able to expect from the market a
progressive equalization of the prices of energy derived from
different sources, and thus obtain a spontaneous transition.
Today this is no longer possible – our world does not work
like that anymore. Our world functions on acceleration, on
crisis, on speculation. The subprime mortgage crisis is a typical
example of a market law that spiraled out of control.
The grand paradox is that we cannot simply take a political
position from the left or right and apply it. In each doctrine
there are elements absolutely necessary to arrive at an effica-
cious result. To resolve the current challenges, we need both
entrepreneurs and governments.
The problem is that each entrepreneur expects their competi-
tors to take the first step because there is a certain risk in being
the first to pioneer and invest in renewable energy. Critical
mass has not yet been attained and we do not know exactly
which technologies are going to be the most immediately
profitable or the breakthroughs of tomorrow. And so, they
wait. On the other side, the governments say that it is up to
the private entrepreneurs to take the first step. And so noth-
ing – or very little – happens.
Today, people are forbidden from throwing garbage into the
forest, but it is still permitted to waste energy and to spew
CO
2
into the atmosphere. We are lacking the political will and
the legal framework that would oblige our society, industries,
and consumers to use technologies that would allow us to
decrease our consumption of fossil fuels. Government ac-
tion is what we have to encourage from now on if we want
to energize industry, create jobs, and improve our purchase
power and trade balance –while at the same time protecting
our environment.
Dr. Bertrand Piccard, along with
Brian Jones, was the first to complete
a non-stop balloon flight around the
globe. His new futuristic enterprise is to
fly round the world in a solar-powered
airplane named Solar Impulse.
Climate Change