International climate diplomacy will always end in failure, because sovereign states have never demonstrated the capacity to share privation. There is no reason to expect them to start now, to solve an invisible “problem” that would manifest itself over centuries.
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Despite global alarm about the threat that fossil fuel combustion poses to Earth’s climate, coal appears poised to recover its 19th-century prominence as the world’s top energy source, delegates at the Globe 2008 conference heard on Wednesday. Mark Josz, head of strategy and portfolio management for energy systems project managers Suez International, says the growth of coal-fired electricity generation in China is unprecedented in the history of electricity infrastructure development. “In 2006, China put into operation 105 gigawatts, which is [equivalent to] the entire electricity generation system of France,” Josz said. He said 90 per cent of that generation was from coal plants, and China followed by adding 91 gigawatts of coal generation in 2007. “This is unique, we have never seen that in history. Coal was the energy of the 19th century, lost to oil in the 20th century, but clearly coal could be the fuel of reference for the 21st century.”