IEA warns about Asian power plants
The International Energy Agency is to deliver a blunt message to world
leaders at the next Group of Eight climate summit in Japan that they need to
offer incentives to China and India to build their new power plants with
carbon capture if global emissions are to be brought under control.
Fatih Birol, chief economist at the IEA, told Upstream that the world “was
still far from the stability scenario” when it comes to controlling carbon
dioxide emissions.
"We are predicting a 6 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures over the
next few decades which will have dramatic implications for our planet,” he
warned.
Birol said in terms of responsibility there will be three major global
emitters of CO2 by 2015 – number one being China, two the United States and
three India.
“These three will account for more than 50% of global CO2 emissions,” he
predicted.
He said that without these three countries fully on board in any new global
agreement to follow Kyoto there will be “no chance whatsoever” to make any
major reductions in climate change emissions.
World leaders will be meeting at the July summit in Hokkaido to lay the
groundwork for a new global agreement which it is hoped can be reached in
Copenhagen in 2009.
“We need to make a major move in climate change by strongly cutting
emissions in the next ten years,” he said.
“China and India will need a lot of new infrastructure such as power
generation plants over the next few years.
“Between 2006 and 2015 the two countries will need around 800 gigawatts of
new plant to be built and around 90% of these will be coal-fired,” he said.
Birol said the problem is that once these plants are built they could keep
emitting greenhouse gases for the whole of their economic life for the next
50 to 60 years.
“So our future will be locked in because these plants will be emitting CO2
for several decades to come,” he said.
He added that the world “should not blame China and India” as all they are
doing is what rich countries have done in the past in growing their
economies.
“In the future we will have a new global economic structure and will not
stand a chance of reducing CO2 emissions unless we stop these power plants,”
he added.
06 May 2008 21:06 GMT
| last updated:
06 May 2008 22:10 GMT
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