Innovation in renewable energy, in the public interest, is urgently needed. The financial sector is deeply compromised and cannot be relied upon to invest in effective technologies that are manufactured, rolled out, and make a difference to our energy emissions.  Peter Drahos joins Lyn Fries of GPEnewsdocs. 

TRANSCRIPT

LYNN FRIES: Hello and welcome. I’m Lynn Fries producer of Global Political Economy or GPEnewsdocs. This is Part 2 of a conversation with author Peter Drahos on his forthcoming book Survival Governance: Energy & Climate in the Chinese Century.

In Part 1 Drahos explained two concepts– Survival Governance and the bio-digital energy paradigm – introduced in the book. And why, as argued in the book: Without strong leadership from one or more states a world below 2 degrees centigrade is not feasible. Innovation leadership is needed to move the world off fossil fuels and onto renewable energy. CO2 emissions from fossil fuel burning represent about 75% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. US continuous fossil fuel innovation and US monopoly models of innovation are failed strategies for a world seeking paths to a low carbon future. While many things could go very badly wrong, China more than any other capitalist state is the most plausible candidate to use state power to roll out new technology at the requisite speed, scale, price and direction necessary to address climate change. The world’s best chance to avoid climate catastrophe rests on innovation leadership from China.

This segment explores Drahos’ take on some other dynamics that he sees at play. We go now back to our conversation with Peter Drahos, Professor of Law and Governance at the European University Institute and Intellectual Property Law at Queen Mary, University of London. Welcome Peter

PETER DRAHOS: Thank you.

FRIES: Peter, we are talking about energy and climate in a situation where the world’s primary energy supply is dominated by fossil fuels with oil at around 32%, gas 23%, coal around 27% and renewable energy is marginalized at something like barely 2%. Talk about that and the lost opportunity of the 1970s.

DRAHOS: Look, the oil crisis of 1973-74 was one of those great opportunities, I mean; it was seen as an opportunity at the time. Lots of ideas that had been played around with mainly by scientists in laboratories: the possibility of solar power which really had become much more doable with the invention of the modern semiconductor chip in the 1950s; tidal power, for example, and wind power; all of these ideas about harnessing the ocean’s currents, about harnessing the sun about, harnessing the wind; those ideas suddenly found an opportunity. But the bulk of the funding went into things that ultimately mattered militarily most obviously nuclear power. But also it was all about maintaining oil security which obviously was important both in terms of economic performance as well as for the purpose of fueling war machines.

Every year the International Energy Agency will publish statistics on the percentage of primary energy that we get from coal, oil and gas and renewables. I should make the point there that the renewable statistic does not include hydropower, which the International Energy Agency classifies separately from renewables, of course, nuclear power also. 

It is a statistic that shows that progress has been slow. And that is why I argue in the book that we are in the late stages of a climate crisis and innovation now is really our only hop...