A new paper published by the Global Warming Policy Foundation reviews the negative impacts and social consequences of Western demands on developing countries to adopt net-zero policies. [emphasis, links added]
Western governments are increasingly demanding that poor and developing countries turn to renewable energy to achieve a net-zero economy.
Pressure exerted through various mechanisms, including trade barriers, directly affects the already struggling populations and economies of these countries.
The paper reveals that forcing developing countries to repeat the costly mistakes of Western decarbonization policies threatens the well-being and livelihoods of billions of people around the world.
The author of the report, Canadian professor Ismet Ugursal, said:
“Poor people in developing and developed countries urgently need access to more and cheaper energy to improve their living standards. To reduce and eliminate poverty, economic growth and increased energy use are necessary, not optional.
In most developed countries, governments provide grants and subsidies for renewable energy that are uneconomical and unsustainable without billions of dollars in subsidies.
Since poor households can rarely afford these renewable energy systems, they cannot benefit from them, But abnormally, It is their taxes and subsidies that fund these measures.
Professor Ugursar said:
“Goals such as net zero emissions and degrowth are therefore not credible. They are misguided follies that will sooner or later be abandoned as the harm they cause to everyone, especially the poor, becomes obvious. In technology At this point in technological advancement, the only light at the end of the tunnel appears to be increased utilization of nuclear energy.
Ismet Ugursal: The ethics of decarbonization for the poor (pdf)
