To the participants at the World Economic Forum: as you know, fossil fuels have been crucial in the “development” of our “civilisation” over the past century, and we have become dependent on them for the functioning of our industries and lifestyle. But have we not now realised that the energy we need is electricity, not oil or gas?
At the 28th COP, fossil fuels were at last named as guilty, albeit in a weakened resolution. But are we not stark raving mad to continue using and exploring for more fossil fuels, though we know the consequences?
You must know the cost of the damage caused by weather extremes across the globe, be that from heat and wildfires, or excessive freezing conditions, or droughts or floods or hurricanes. It runs into billions of dollars. These have all happened with temperature increases of at least 1.3°C. What will it be like at 1.5°C, never mind 2°C, which we will reach unless we take meaningful action?
Why did we not have a stronger resolution at COP28? There is one simple answer — because of the money involved in fossil fuels, we are prepared to destroy the prospects for our children and the life of the planet for our wealth.
Read more in Daily Maverick: COP28 news hub
So let us be clear about two principles. First, we are entirely dependent on the well-being of this planet, obviously our only home. Kill the planet and no amount of money will save you.
The second follows on: all our activities, all our energies, all our priorities, should be to preserve and protect the well-being of the planet and the people and life on it, not just to make money.
This might sound like heresy to some at Davos, but I approach you as I believe you hold the key to our future survival and well-being.
What do I mean by this? We know we can now generate all the energy we need through renewable means. Some countries are already doing this. Therefore, all investments must be to develop this infrastructure and none for fossil fuels, except to close down fossil-fuel infrastructure.
Change your worldview
You will recall that at the early stages of the Covid shutdown, people in India could see the snow-capped peaks of the Himalayas. The atmosphere was cleaner and clearer.
We cannot bring back glaciers or refreeze the Antarctic or parts of Greenland, but we can halt the ongoing melting of glaciers, halt the rising oceans, reduce the danger of the Gulf Stream changing course and bringing Newfoundland temperatures to Britain. And giving hope to the next generation.
Satish Kumar from Schumacher College summarised in The Guardian what many of us know we need to do. Change our worldview. Nature is not just a resource for the economy, nature is life itself, and we humans are not separate from nature. We are part of nature, and nature is a living organism.
James Lovelock called this Gaia — a self-maintaining, self-correcting organism. And recognise that the economy of nature is cyclical. Today we have a linear industrial economy — use it and throw it away. That is why we have oceans full of plastic, rivers full of sewage and an atmosphere full of greenhouse gases.
So, participants of Davos, please direct and encourage future investments to be made in planetary health and social well-being.
And let every business and country embark on this. COP28 was a huge disappointment in not being stronger regarding our need to change direction, but that does not stop us from doing so.
Let every country and every investment company invest in renewable energy and divest from fossil fuels. Soon the fossil fuel industry will start disintegrating — for the future benefit of life on Earth.
Fossil fuel fixation
I am writing from South Africa, where our whole coastline has been opened to seismic exploration at a time when the world recognises that we have to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels and when the International Energy Agency has stated that we have more known fossil fuel resources than we can safely burn, so why explore for more?
In Namibia, fracking exploration has been undertaken in the Okavango Delta region, a unique and irreplaceable wildlife preserve. In Uganda and Tanzania, the well-being of well over 100,000 people is threatened by the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (Eacop). Running through the heart of East Africa, this 1,445km pipeline would be the longest heated crude oil pipeline in the world. This could make investors and banks a lot of money, while destroying the lives and livelihoods of thousands of people and threatening unique wildlife reserves such as the Murchison Falls National Park.
On what basis do I make this appeal? I am an Anglican bishop, long involved in environmental and social justice. I am guided by Biblical principles and ethics and I recognise the principles of evolution.
At the end of the first chapter of Genesis we read “God saw everything that God had made, and indeed, it was very good”. We are told to care for and look after this amazing planet of life – Genesis 2:15: “And the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it”. John’s Gospel 3:16: “For God so loved the world…”.
In Greek the word is cosmos. God loves this whole creation, not just us humans. The Old Testament prophets all call for justice: “But let justice roll down like waters, and righteousness like an everflowing stream”. (Amos 5:24).
God also called for equity. When Moses led the Israelites through the wilderness, God fed them with bread from heaven. Moses commanded them to gather as much as each needed: “The Israelites did so, some gathering more, some less. But when they measured it… those who gathered much had nothing over, and those who gathered little had no shortage; they gathered as much as each of them needed.” (Exodus 16:16-17).
Inequity continues to be a major cause of injustice and suffering in our world, impacting both socially and on the environment. The current inequities are quite abhorrent. Do CEOs and top sports players need to receive quite so much? Surely a Roger Federer or Tiger Woods excelled for the prestige and not the cash?
Jesus Christ calls for compassion and love as overriding principles: “Love the Lord your God” and “Love your neighbour as yourself”.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught that God’s will should be done on Earth as it is already done in heaven. God is deeply concerned that there should be justice, love and peace on Earth. We would find peace if we followed these moral precepts. DM
Become an Insider
Powerful stuff. As an atheist guided by fatalistic views, if we don’t stop using fossil fuels we are equally as doomed.
What absolute rubbish there are no renewables on this planet that can service a country’s industrial needs – just stop with the nonsense now
Iceland – 86.87%
Norway – 71.56%
Sweden – 50.92%
Brazil – 46.22%
New Zealand – 40.22%
Denmark – 39.25%
Austria – 37.48%
Switzerland – 36.72%
.
South Africa – 3, 41 with all the possibilities that there are in the country it is ridiculously low.
Indeed. Actually these figures appear to be the renewable fraction of the total energy consumption. Thus according to Wikipedia and many other sources, Iceland’s electricity has been 100% (above 99.9%) renewable since 2006. And Denmark’s 80% since 2019 … Transport (and steel and cement production) still uses a large part of total energy , and relies mainly on fossil fuels.
According to the BP-Solarex world map of Design Insolation, we have by far the best solar resource globally. Design Insolation here is average solar radiation onto an optimally tilted stationary surface during the LEAST SUNNY month. During that month nights are longest and coldest, and demand tends to peak.
Though some parts (the Sahara, Arabia & Australia) have a bit more total solar than we do, it is generally impractical to store surplus summer electricity for winter. In terms of the more meaningful Design Insolation, Southern Africa (SA plus adjacent parts of Namibia & Botswana) has a larger area in the uppermost category (above 6.5 kWh/day) than THE COMBINED REST OF THE WORLD.
Iceland is blessed with geothermal energy.
Denmark punishes its consumers with by far the most expensive electricity in Europe.
Seeing that you’re big on Googling stuff, go Google the word “baseload.” Except for hydroelectric or geothermal energy, which SA has very little of, so-called green power cannot provide baseload.
The end.
Great to see you still kicking butt Geoff!
The unpalatable truth is that eliminating the use of fossil fuels is not going to “save the planet”. There are just too many of us, and all aspire to a higher standard of living (would you rather own a car, or catch a taxi?). The Bishop emphasises electricity, but the energy to produce clean electricity (manufacturing of soalr panels for example) leaves its own, massive, environmental footprint. Secondly of course, with or without humans, the world’s climate changes cyclically (we are simply in an interglacial at the moment, and probably close to peak temperatures before the inevitable cooling cycle begins). I’m not advocating doing nothing, but that the strategies employed to ensure a better future are not simply a knee-jerk reaction to our present predicament.
This misleads. The energy payback period estimated by Solarmarket in Australia is between 1 and 4 years. That is, it takes between 1 and 4 years for a properly installed solar panel to generate as much energy as was used to manufacture it. The payback period varies by type of panel (being shortest for thin-film panels, and longer for the more commonly used crystalline silicon panels) and by the solar radiation of where it is installed, and by the quality of the installation.
Solar panels and batteries will not within the next 20 years be able to provide Gauteng with sufficient power on a cold July night.
It’s either nuclear or fossil fuels, whether scientifically and engineering illiterates like it or not.
I can’t believe you spout such nonsense.
Virtually all the world’s electricity is powered by gas or coal. So we are consuming fossil fuels at rhe back end and make it look green at the front.
Batteries are extremely toxic. Terrible to manufacture and impossible to recycle…at this stage of the game.
Wind turbines cannot be recycled so they go to landfill .
Just about everything we own has plastic. Spectacles. Cars. Cups. Kettles. Spoons. Roofing. Waterproofing. Shoes. Car tyres. All made from by products of the petroleum industry. You will replace all of that with what?
EV cars are 85 percent made with products from the petroleum industry. Interior. Bumpers. Switches. Tyres. Steel iron and aluminum in giant gas furnaces. Glass mined and melted with petroleum. Then formed on steel tables.
Sorry but you are ill informed and have no idea the depth to which everything is dependant on fossil fuels. Even the phone or laptop that you used to write this opinion piece. And the Bible or gospel has absolutely nothing to with it as it was compiled long before the existence of such things.
Just think about it.
Regards.
Andrew, you show little respect not only to the Bishop. but to reality (facts).
You start with “Virtually all the world’s electricity is powered by gas or coal”. Nothing is further from the truth. Iceland’s electricity has renewable been 99.9+% since 2006, Denmark’s 80% since 2019, that of Uruguay well above 90%, and that of Norway, Sweden, Finland & France also above half, if in France & Finland’s case you include nuclear.
The rest of your piece also seriously distorts reality.
Did you type your comment on a cell phone or a laptop? You realize both contain significant amounts of plastic, don’t you?
Where do you think those plastics come from?
As for your cherry-picked data, Uruguay is blessed with abundant hydroelectric power. Kindly tell us where SA must build its hydro dams, to power Gauteng?
This is the problem. Almost all greens are scientific and engineering illiterates.
Even China, the biggest CO2 emitting country and the biggest user of coal, the renewable fraction of their total electricity has steadily increased since 2011 from 17% to 34%. Ten times as large a renewable fraction much as in sunny SA, which has by far the best solar resource of any country., and which with proper governance could easily have been the WORLD LEADER in solar by now.
Aluminium is smelted from its ores in ELECTRIC, not GAS smelters. So is manganese, of which SA is a major producer.
P[astics & rubbers are made from coal, not oil in SA — and to some extent also in the USA. And in the near future will be from captured CO2 plus renewable electricity — as is already done on lab/pilot scale.
Iron & steel are reduced & melted from iron ores with coke, not gas. Both electric and gas ovens are used to form and melt glass from its components. Glass is not formed in an inferior process on steel tables, but in a float process.
The world’s biggest EV (electric vehicle) is a gigantic mining vehicle owned by Anglo Plats in one of their mines near Rustenburg. Operated 24 hours per day on electricity from fuel cells running on green hydrogen produced at Sasol from RENEWABLE SOLAR AND WIND POWER.
So the undeveloped world wants to justify the suicidal pursuit of extracting and burning fossil fuels on the basis of perceived victimhood (We must also have a chance to get rich and filthy) while those who just want to keep printing the petrodollars eagerly believe all the misinformation about ‘climate change being a myth’ (even well known politicians believe this lie; Mantashe, Trump, Putin, etc.). However, the wise know that it is far, far better to accept reality and act accordingly rather than to bear the inevitable future costs of denial. It doesn’t matter whether you think climate change is unfair or a conspiracy, it’s remains the truth and no amount of idiocy can change that.
Dear Geoff. I represent a consortium of consulting engineers and potential investors seeking to develop three hydro pump storage plus several utility scale floating solar projects located near the pump storage projects. 7000MW estimate. Also 2000MW nuclear and 1000 MW wind with good grid connectivity. We seek to establish one or more Public Limited Componies for bringing these projects to “bankable ” stage. The process starts with Environmental Impact assessment and grid connectivity studies followed by numerous technical studies relevant to pump storage floating solar nuclear or wind. All these studies requires substantial investment. Pump storage and nuclear is very costly but less costly than load shedding and air polution. A good hydro pump storage or nuclear facility has a 50+ year life span and excellant hedge against inflation. Both poor and rich benefit from cleaner air and a constant supply of affordable electricity. The change to Electic Vehichels both small and very large will substantially increase demand for electricity supply. Please invest in a Public Limited Compony that seeks to develop NO AIR POLUTION Electricity. You can contact me at [email protected] or watsapp to 0825682513. I can provide more technical details and the stages the various projects are at . CLEAN AIR CLEAN AIR CLEAN AIR
If well managed (a scarcity in SA nowadays). this appears to be an excellent proposal. For best grid efficiency, it is good to have generation and storage close together. One problem is that many of the best sites for hydro (pumped or otherwise) has already been taken in our water scarce country. Tubatse of course remains.
You’d be better off lighting your braai fire. Water Affairs, a few years ago, identified over 90 potential sites for hydro power. All but 2 were rejected as being unfeasible, and projects were launched at those 2 sites.
For your and your family’s financial future, please don’t dream yourself into insolvency.
Geoff, thanks for passionately speaking truth to power.
The Earth will survive. It’s us humans who are destroying ourselves through our destructive, extractive, polluting technologies and by the greed that drives our ‘addiction’ to fossil fuels.
Peace.
The Conversation (2024) reports that renewables now generate more of Britain’s electricity than fossil fuels.
In a January 2016 article noting some exciting changes in British energy, The Conversation published the following paragraph:
“Wind, solar and hydro – the weather-dependent renewables – together generated 14.6% of Great Britain’s electrical energy in 2015, the highest ever annual amount. Wind stormed (literally) past the 2014 record to break through the 10% milestone. Solar more than doubled to 2.5%.”
The Conversation 2024 says, “Eight years on, those numbers look tiny. Wind is now up to 29% and solar has doubled again. In 2015, coal still generated a quarter of British electricity, but last year it was down to 1%. Indeed the same author, energy analyst Grant Wilson, recently noted that 2023 was the first ever year when Britain would get more electricity from renewables than fossil fuels.”
Amazingly, in South Africa, we have long-debunked myths still spouted by those who should know better. Myths that claim to provide a plethora of reasons why we can’t use more solar voltaic or wind renewable energy generation. We clutch at any straw argument, from the weird (“the Sun doesn’t shine at night), to the strange (“wara wara baseload wara wara”), to the absurd (“nuclear energy is green energy”).
But the Brits are doing it. What’s wrong with us?
Well, we have Gwede, for one thing.
Baseload is not, repeat not, a so-called myth or “warawara” [sic]. Any engineering and scientifically literate person will tell you that baseload is a major problem for so-called renewables. It is no myth that you want the lights on and be able to bath on a winter’s night. No amount of wishy-washy, scientifically illiterate denialism about the need for baseload, and the inability of renewals in SA to provide this, will ever change this deadly scientific reality.