December 03, 2008

BRIC set to beat rich nations in energy use by 2030 - OECD

Paris based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has warned that Brazil, Russia, India and China, also known as the BRIC group of countries are expected to overtake the rich countries in primary energy consumption by 2030 and worsen their environmental calamities.

Issuing the 2008 OECD Environmental Outlook, the rich country economic think tank said “the primary energy consumption of Brazil, Russia, India and China together is expected to grow by 72% between 2005 and 2030, compared with 29% in the OECD countries. Unless ambitious policy action is taken, greenhouse gas emissions from just these four countries will grow by 46% in 2030, surpassing those of the 30 OECD countries combined.”

The OECD estimates suggest that 63% population in the BRIC countries is living under medium to severe water stress and this share is expected to increase to 80% by 2030 unless radical measures are taken. The OECD’s economic environmental projections indicate that world greenhouse gas emissions are expected to grow by 37% to 2030 and by 52% to 2050.

Mr Angel Gurria secretary general OCED said that “Countries will need to shift the structure of their economies to move towards low carbon, greener and more sustainable future. The costs of this restructuring are affordable, but the transition will need to be managed carefully to address social and competitiveness impacts.”

He said that adopting a traffic light approach to classify how environmental problems are managed, OECD said countries needed to do more in global greenhouse gas emissions, water scarcity, ground water quality and agricultural water use and pollution.

The report projects that world GDP will almost double by 2030 and it will cost 1% of GDP to implement a package that can reduce key air pollutants by about a third and contain GHG emissions to about 12% instead of the 37% growth if no immediate measures are taken. It has recommended a host of policies based on economic and market based instruments. They include use of green taxes, efficient water pricing, emissions trading, polluter pay systems, waste charges and eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies.