The world is in the grip of a fossil fuel crisis, not an energy crisis, says Professor Eric Beinhocker from the Oxford Martin School.
Joining University of Oxford and Harvard academics today in calling on world leaders to seize the moment at COP27 and accelerate the renewable energy transition, Professor Beinhocker insists “the sun and the wind remain cheap and are getting cheaper” and that “empirical research shows that the faster we transition to renewable energy, the more we will save in costs – potentially trillions”.
At COP events on Wednesday and Friday this week Professor Cameron Hepburn, Director of the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford will talk about recent research indicating net savings of $12 trillion dollars are possible from decarbonising the global energy system by 2050.
“COP 27 has the potential to be a milestone moment for the global response to the climate crisis,” insists Professor Hepburn. “It is the first COP where we have empirically-founded modelling that shows what many have believed for years – that renewables are on track to be a net cost saving to the global energy system, and the faster the system is decarbonised the cheaper energy will be for everyone. Not only that, but it comes at a time where the cost, volatility, and national security implications of the world’s reliance on fossil fuels is all too clear. Now is the time when the conversation changes. Now is the time we embrace the economic opportunity of the energy transition.”
The leading academic will speak on the details of the research paper ‘Empirically grounded technology forecasts and the energy transition’ during two COP 27 Blue Zone events. If you are at COP27 the first of these is a University of Oxford event at the Global Alliance of Universities on Climate (GAUC) event area from 14:00 EET on Wednesday 9th November; and also an SSE plc backed event at the Business Pavilion for Climate Leadership from 13:00 EET on Thursday 10th November.
The position has widespread support from academics, business and activists, with renowned environmentalist Bill McKibben, Founder and Senior Advisor at the climate campaign group 350.org saying: “The economics of the energy transition used to be the thing that slowed us down. Now, with the mountain of data showing that renewables are an economic boon of the first order, it should be the wind in our sails.”
