Choosing Between Energy Conservation and Economic Growth

Posted by Laurence O'Sullivan Sep 30, 2008

Most people and governments are aware of the problems caused by rising greenhouse gas emissions, and all of them purport to be taking measures to curb the problem.

Carbon Dioxide Levels and the Developed World

Because the developed world is responsible for approximately 80% of the cumulative man made rise in carbon dioxide since the Industrial Revolution, the Kyoto Protocol required these countries to make the biggest cuts in their greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, most of the developed countries are making some attempts to cut their carbon dioxide emissions. As a result their emissions, if not actually decreasing, are not rising as fast as the less developed world.

Developing Countries and the Kyoto Protocol

Because the developing countries argued that they were not responsible for most of the anthropogenic carbon dioxide, the Kyoto Protocol largely gave them a pass on emission limits. Now, new figures from the Global Carbon Project, show that despite Kyoto, carbon dioxide levels continue to increase, even beyond the most pessimistic forecasts, and these figures show that it is now the developing countries that are the main culprits in this increase.

Economic Growth and Energy Subsidies

A link can be established between the drive for growth and fear of inflation on one hand and the demand for fossil fuels on the other. Governments such as Mexico, Indonesia, Malaysia and China heavily subsidize fuel, especially diesel, which of course drives up demand for such products. In China alone, BP estimates that the fuel subsidy costs in the region of $40 Billion.

Western developed countries are being forced to cut back on energy use due to high prices and the economy, but countries in Asia, where subsidies are endemic, are estimated to be responsible for 90% of the world's increase in oil use last year.