We are on the right path

We are currently consuming 84 million barrels of oil, 8 billion cubic meters of natural gas and 8.5 million tonnes of coal in order to meet our energy needs. And this is per day. Our demand for fossil fuels is bringing us closer and closer to the two crises which will dominate the 21st century, and are strongly linked to one another: the climate crisis and the energy crisis. A great deal has already been written and said about both of them, and the debate is currently primarily being carried out from two positions. On the one side, there are the 'stayers', who are sticking with the current way of thinking and doing. They think that the problems must be solved in the long term without affecting 'business as usual'. Solving the current economic crisis is the priority in this, and a sustainable energy supply is something to worry about later. They assume that the two points cannot be united with one another, and that increasing sustainability results in increased costs and therefore lower profits. On the other side are the ‘movers’. They follow the science, which indicates unmistakably that we must switch to alternative energy sources as soon as possible, and that this has priority over other, short-term objectives.

We have now pumped so much carbon into the atmosphere that global warming of approximately two degrees is already almost unavoidable. In other words, we cannot make our energy supply green fast enough in order to stay out of climate scenarios which envisage even more warming. The economic crisis is actually offering opportunities in this area, as government (and other) investment forms the necessary limiting condition for working rapidly on a more sustainable energy production and more sustainable production processes and products. One of the proponents of this is the English science journalist and author Fred Pearce. We interviewed him a year ago when he visited the Netherlands to promote his book 'The Last Generation’. He was forward-looking even then, as shown from the short fragment at the bottom of this article. In recent months, hundreds of millions have been withdrawn from traditional investments, and many investors are looking at Green Tech funds in which to reinvest their money. Investors are reticent, however, because nobody wants to create a new bubble.

After the dot-com, property and hedge fund experiences, people are afraid to invest in another new fund which will, in time, collapse. This caution is a good thing. The investments themselves must be sustainable, and fulfil long-term objectives. There is no goose laying golden (or green) eggs, no single technological miracle cure. A mix of many solutions and techniques will be necessary, in order for us to kick our fossil fuel addiction. A balanced mix of investments will therefore also have to take place. The economy and the ecology can and must go hand in hand. Many 'movers' are concerned about the slow speed at which we are increasing sustainability. And this sometimes includes us. Nevertheless, it is good to put this caution in perspective.

In 2005, only four years ago, we organised the first edition of the Ben & Jerry's Climate Change College, and later that year, the CO2005 conference (see the portfolio section of this website). The central theme of both of these was raising awareness, in view of the fact that most people were still completely unaware of the scale of climate change and the possible consequences. Only two years later, the objective of the Climate Change College had changed, and the focus was on working on concrete solutions. The Noordpool.FM project with 3FM and the Ministry of the Environment was also in line with this. Make people aware, and then tempt them also actually to change something. Our most recent programmes, such as CoolSchools and Voyage for the Future, have focused totally on the action perspective: what can I personally do to make a difference? We will be continuing along this line in the next year, with our new programmes for the business community and the public sector. We are deliberately focusing on this key target group, because these players will be setting the course for society to a significant extent. In four years, the objectives of our programmes have followed one another at a rapid tempo, and the vast majority of people have been transformed from unaware to involved. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, ‘First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.’ Based on the battle between the movers and the stayers as to whether investments should move to sustainable developments, we can only conclude one thing: we are on the right path.