Les carburants propres sont-ils enfin arrivés à maturité?

Selon Daniel Kammen, professeur dans le domaine de l’énergie au sein du groupe Energy and Resources (ERG) et à l’institut Goldman de politiques publiques (Goldman School of Public Policy), les récentes mesures prises par certains pays commencent peut-être enfin à donner des résultats en vue de réduire le réchauffement de la planète. 

The author writes that each country has adopted a different approach, for example Sweden is aiming for an oil-free economy by 2020, while the Global Warming Solutions Act in California aims to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from the state by 25% over the next two decades. Even President Bush has indicated that the US needs to end its oil addiction.

The author identifies two further crucial announcements this year. Firstly, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announced that it is 90% certain that global warming has been caused by humans and secondly, the awarding of the largest university research grant – some $500 million over ten years – by BP to the University of California, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. This grant has led to the formation of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI) with the aim of furthering the development of biofuels.

The author argues that we must take care in our use of biofuels, because although cellulostic ethanol can provide a dramatic reduction in GHG emissions, corn-based ethanol produces « only very modest greenhouse-gas benefits ». He continues by calling for « a series of regional or national efforts to examine what the lowest-carbon fuels are for different regions ».

The most important climate-change issue now is « who will lead, how we will collectively address the problem, and how quickly we will find efficient ways not only to address it but also to turn it into an opportunity to make our economies stronger and more equitable », according to Kammen.

This is important, because, according to the author, global warming is only one of many reasons to support the transition to a clean, renewable energy future. A compelling case can also be made on the basis of « economic development, energy security or other environmental benefits ».