The world has ‘two business cycles’ left to meet Paris goals

(Eco Business, 3 Jul 2019) Developments in wind and solar power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency in production have been extraordinary but more is needed from corporates and investors in the next decade, says Michael Liebreich, keynote speaker at the recent Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition.

By 2040, solar and wind power will make up a third of the world’s electricity supply, a third of the vehicles on roads will be electric, and the global economy will achieve one-third more gross domestic product (GDP) from every unit of energy, putting the world closer to the goals of the Paris Agreement even if they will not be enough to achieve them.

In fact, these projections are conservative estimates that do not take into account promising research and developments in the respective fields, said Michael Liebreich, the keynote speaker of the recent Macao International Environmental Co-operation Forum & Exhibition (MIECF) 2019, who is chairman and chief executive of London-based sustainable development advisory services firm Liebreich Associates.

Held from March 28 to 30 at the Venetian Macao, the annual MIECF was hosted by the Macao government, and had Promoting Ecological Civilization and Green Development as its theme this year.

The “three-third” world

Liebreich, who also founded New Energy Finance and chaired the advisory board when it subsequently became Bloomberg New Energy Finance, pointed to several trends that underpin his predictions of this “three-third world” which were presented during his keynote speech and in a session focused on green industry.

Due to falling costs, unsubsidised solar and wind power are now the cheapest forms of electricity in most parts of the world and the lowest costs today will become commonplace. “We are now well into the world of very cheap wind and solar power,” he said.

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Eco Business, 3 Jul 2019: The world has ‘two business cycles’ left to meet Paris goals