In this episode I visit Professor Brett Christophers at Uppsala University in Sweden to delve further into claims he makes in his new book, ‘The Price is Wrong: Why Capitalism Won’t Save the Planet’.
Professor Christophers argues that there’s a widespread misconception about what’s needed to expand the use of renewable energy and speed the transition away from fossil fuel generation.
He says that while renewables appear to be cheap and getting cheaper, they may not actually be profitable. The point, he says, is that generating costs are only part of the green energy cost equation and there are other major costs involved, notably the high transmission costs of getting renewable energy from where it’s produced to where it’s used.
The upshot is that the transition to renewable energy generation is less rapid than anticipated and may even slow further if the economics become less favourable and investment more unattractive.
He says that while governments expect the private sector to take most of the responsibility for substituting clean for dirty energy, they must take on at least part of this burden by way of public ownership, public financing, or even by compelling private firms to build renewables.
It’s all pretty thought provoking stuff.