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Climate Change as a Flagship Opportunity for Domestic Governance Yuan Xu* Department of Geography and Resource Management & Institute of Environment, Energy and Sustainability, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China geopolitics, influencing, for example, the Sino-Japanese relationship regarding the oil/gas-rich East China Sea and the competition for control over several transportation chokepoints, such as the Malacca Strait. Oil prices have experienced several significant fluctuations in recent decades, and worries about resource depletion are often partly responsible for the increases. Climate mitigation would substantially alleviate such concerns. The remaining CO2 budget for achieving the 2 °C goal of the Paris Agreement, about 1,140 Gt CO2, would run short if current proven oil and natural gas reserves −1703 billion barrels and 217 trillion m 3, respectively−were exhausted.3 The world would accordingly not run out of oil and natural gas resources if the goal were achieved, while the depressed demand would drive their prices significantly lower.3 Less consumption could reduce the foreign dependency of fossil fuel importers and alleviate tensions about transportation chokepoints, which would decrease the potential of international conflicts. Low-carbon energy resources, especially wind and solar energy, generally provide domestic supplies, so they can help to alleviate the effects of uneven global distribution of fossil fuel resource endowments.3 Another conflict-rich resource coimpact is on water. The extraction of fossil fuels, he Paris Agreement was successfully negotiated in 2015 such as shale oil/gas due to its involvement hydraulic fracturing, and formally entered into force on November 4, 2016. consumes a great deal of water, and fossil-fuel−fired power However, the result of the recent presidential election in the plants generally use steam turbines that require even more United States has added uncertainties to its fate and especially water for cooling. Wind turbines and photovoltaic panels its implementation. The possible position change of the United essentially do not require water for electricity generation.3 States raises concerns that other major parties could revise their Serious and well-managed climate mitigation could enhance water sustainability and reduce water-induced domestic and commitments accordingly. international conflicts. I argue that individual countries should see climate change as Second, the consumption of fossil fuels, specifically coal and a domestic, holistic governance opportunity, and not just as a oil, is responsible for the emission of most greenhouse gases global burden to be reluctantly shared. In ecological and other air pollutants. Indoor and outdoor air pollution conservation, a critical promotion and governance strategy is causes millions of premature deaths annually; climate to identify a f lagship species.1 Because habitat degradation mitigation could thus have significant cobenefits for public threatens this species’ natural survival, its protection demands health. The World Health Organization found that 90% of the habitat conservation, which should then benefit all other species global urban population lives in cities that do not meet its air that share the same habitat. If a country were to seriously quality guidelines, and large, rapidly industrializing countries combat climate changea comprehensive and difficult such as China and India account for most of the health challenge for governanceit would greatly contribute to its impacts.4 The replacement of coal with natural gas and individual efforts regarding many smaller challenges. It would renewable energy plays an increasingly important role in then become a flagship opportunity. The Porter Hypothesis mitigating both CO2 emissions and air pollution. The states that environmental regulations could induce innovation 2 decarbonization of the transport sector with alternative fuels, to compensate for the costs of environmental protection. I especially electricity generated from wind turbines and propose a further hypothesis that the costs of climate mitigation photovoltaic panels, also reduces vehicular pollution. Furcould be well compensated by nonclimate-related, largely thermore, indoor air pollution plagues mainly poor commundomestic benefits alone. ities in developing countries in which solid fuels are burned for First, a coimpact of fossil fuel consumption is the residential energy consumption. One of the major pollutants is competition for limited and unevenly distributed fossil fuel resources, especially oil and natural gas, which has been partially responsible for many international conflicts in recent Received: November 28, 2016 decades. Energy security concerns have played a notable role in
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© XXXX American Chemical Society
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06001 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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Environmental Science & Technology black carbon, which is a primary component of fine particulate matter and has a strong global warming potential. Access to cleaner fuels such as liquefied petroleum gas or improved stoves would help to alleviate both problems. Third, climate mitigation could facilitate the transformation of economic development so that it is driven more by innovation and less by natural resources. In the power sector, wind turbines and photovoltaic technologies have improved dramatically in the past decade through efficiency enhancement and cost reduction, which has helped to create several million new jobs.3 The intermittent nature of the power produced by wind turbines and photovoltaic panels, especially with their growing shares in the overall power capacity, demands further innovation in other related fields, including energy storage and smart grids. In the transport sector, alternative fuel vehicles are evolving and being commercialized to provide potentially mainstream mobility services that are less CO2-intensive. The spread of electric high-speed rail networks is exerting profound effects on oil-based airplane transportation.5 New technologies are also rapidly improving the energy efficiencies of power generation, vehicles, buildings, and electric appliances. Climate mitigation is one critical driving force in accelerating the pace of innovation and could contribute to a country’s ability to compete in the international innovation-intensive economy. In conclusion, climate change offers individual countries an appealing challenge with unprecedented coverage. Rather than addressing individual challenges one by one, climate change presents a comprehensive opportunity to tackle them holistically. This flagship opportunity could serve as a powerful engine that propels a grand transformation that would result in fewer conflicts, a cleaner environment and a more innovative economy. Because the achievements of these nonclimate benefits in one large country do not necessarily depend much on actions taken beyond its border, the United States, China and other major countries should remain determined to advance the Paris Agreement.
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*Phone: +852-39436647; e-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Yuan Xu: 0000-0002-3044-5508 Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This research was funded by the General Research Fund of the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (2120485). REFERENCES
(1) IUCN/SSC. Strategic Planning for Species Conservation: A Handbook, IUCN Species Survival Commission; Gland: Switzerland, 2008. (2) Porter, M. E.; Vanderlinde, C. Green and competitiveEnding the stalemate. Harvard Bus Rev. 1995, 73 (5), 120−134. (3) IEA. World Energy Outlook, 2016. (4) WHO. Ambient Air Pollution: A Global Assessment of Exposure and Burden of Disease, 2016. (5) Albalate, D.; Bel, G.; Fageda, X. Competition and cooperation between high-speed rail and air transportation services in Europe. Journal of Transport Geography 2015, 42, 166−174.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.est.6b06001 Environ. Sci. Technol. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
