The lack of energy policy stability in the US could have major implications for global decarbonisation and Net Zero targets, a leading energy academic has warned.
Speaking on gasworld’s 1895 podcast, ‘Is economic growth at the expense of Net Zero targets?’, Dimitri Zenghelis, Visiting Senior Fellow, Grantham Research Institute, at The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), said, “Some cities and states may plough on regardless with what Trump is doing, but the US is clearly not a safe location for investment in these new technologies. I expect the Chinese and Indians are rubbing their hands with glee, as they recognise this is still the way the world will go in future.”
Ten years ago, if the US had said it was pulling out of the Paris Agreement and unwinding renewables investment, then the developing countries would have probably followed suit.
“Those were in the days when decarbonisation was seen as a cost; wind forward to the present time, you can see a palpable difference – it’s now seen as a great opportunity to steal a march on America,” he added.
“If the US is happy to shoot itself in the foot in these fast-growing markets, then the likes of India, China and Europe are very happy to step in and take their place.”
Reflecting on the $2trn Net Zero opportunity, he said the opportunity is in delivering energy more cheaply and more efficiently, and believes there is no inherent trade-off.
“The technologies start expensive and require taxpayers’ money to get them over the hump, but once you achieve tipping points and momentum, where greater deployment means lower cost, but lower cost induces greater deployment, then you get change that happens much more rapidly than anticipated,” he said.
“Clean technologies are not only a strong growth story, they are arguably the only viable long-term growth story. But that doesn’t mean that there won’t be upfront costs, and some sectors – carbon capture and storage, for example, or aviation – where there are some trade-offs between growth and decarbonisation.”
Listen: click here to listen to the ‘Is economic growth at the expense of Net Zero?’ podcast
