The Price of Going Green Is High - Highlighted Article

From: IER

Date: June 7, 2024

The Price of Going Green Is High

Key Takeaways

1. People around the world are beginning to object to the increasingly expensive costs of the “energy transition” being pushed by their governments and some businesses.
2. A paper by the Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) advocates for much heftier expenses for consumers, by recommending a 7-fold increase in money spent on programs to achieve U.N. goals, reaching $9 trillion annually by 2030 and increasing after that.
3. CPI is an international group with initial funding from George Soros that advocates for aggressive climate actions by central governments.
4. Europe has already begun to de-industrialize, with Germany leading the way as they begin to retreat from some of their costliest plans under public pressure.
5. States in the United States such as California, who have led in “green” initiatives, are also beginning to pushback on some “green” policies.

The Climate Policy Initiative (CPI) indicates that climate finance worldwide must increase from $1.3 trillion in 2021/2022 to $9 trillion by 2030 to keep the goals of the Paris Agreement alive. The CPI is an international organization launched with initial funding from George Soros, with offices in the United States, China and other countries. It finds that the annual climate finance needed immediately increases to $8.1 trillion and then steadily increases to $9 trillion by 2030, jumping to over $10 trillion each year from 2031 to 2050. Where is that kind of money going to come from? Countries raised a record $104 billion last year by charging firms for emitting carbon dioxide through carbon pricing and cap and trade systems, but that is a drop in the bucket to what CPI stipulates is needed. Thus, taxes and fees must rise enormously at a time three-quarters of energy consumers say they have already done as much as they can to be sustainable, according to a survey of 100,000 people over 20 countries by the research arm of accounting firm Ernst & Young.

In 2021/2022, average annual climate finance flows reached almost $1.3 trillion, doubling compared to 2019/2020 level of $653 billion driven primarily by a significant acceleration in mitigation finance, particularly in the renewable energy and transport sectors. Mitigation finance was increased by $439 billion from 2019/2020 levels. Despite the increase, current financial flows represent only about one percent of global GDP.  And, those financial flows are already taking a toll on home owners, businesses and consumers via skyrocketing energy costs which flow through the cost of all human endeavors, including agriculture and transportation. (continue reading)

The Price of Going Green Is High