The rich world’s message to the poor: Fossil fuels for me but not for thee – by Bjorn Lomborg (Financial Post – July 27, 2022)

https://financialpost.com/

The rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world

The rich world’s fossil fuel hypocrisy is on full display in its response to the global energy crisis triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. While the wealthy G7 countries admonish the world’s poor to use only renewables because of climate concerns, Europe and the United States are going begging to Arab nations to expand oil production, Germany is reopening coal power plants and Spain and Italy are ramping up African gas production.

So many European countries have asked Botswana to mine more coal it will have to triple its exports.

A single person in the rich world uses more fossil fuel energy than all the energy available to 23 poor Africans. The rich world became wealthy by massively exploiting fossil fuels, which today provide more than three-quarters of its energy. Solar and wind deliver less than three per cent.

Yet the rich are choking off funding for any new fossil fuels in the developing world. Most of the world’s poorest four billion people have no meaningful energy access so the rich blithely tell them to “leapfrog” from no energy to a green nirvana of solar panels and wind turbines.

For the rest of this column: https://financialpost.com/opinion/bjorn-lomborg-the-rich-worlds-message-to-the-poor-fossil-fuels-for-me-but-not-for-thee