Building green: the International Energy Agency says its recovery plan could create nine million … [+] sustainable jobs per year.
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The International Energy Agency has outlined a $3 trillion plan to restart the global economy while cutting greenhouse gas emissions, saying that governments have a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to create jobs while decarbonizing infrastructure.
Released today, the IEA says its three-year roadmap for clean energy and efficiency investment would create nine million jobs every year and additional economic growth of 1.1% annually. The agency claims its plan will eliminate 4.5 billion tonnes (5 billion U.S. tons) of greenhouse gas emissions by 2023.
Including macroeconomic analysis from the International Monetary Fund, the plan is likely to attract the attention of policy makers facing an unprecedented economic challenge: earlier this month, the OECD policy forum forecast the most severe global peacetime recession in a century as a result of the pandemic.
But the world also faces an even larger, potentially more deadly challenge in the form of man-made climate change. And while restrictions caused by COVID-19 worldwide caused a temporary drop in greenhouse gas emissions, recent research has shown that, as lockdowns are loosened, those emissions are already rebounding.
“Global carbon emissions flat-lined in 2019 and are set for a record decline this year,” IEA noted with the release of the report. “While this drop, which results from economic trauma, is nothing to celebrate, it provides a base from which to put emissions into structural decline.”
The report assesses six sectors of the economy—electricity, transport, buildings, industry, fuels and innovation—to home in on over 30 measures it says would generate the most value in terms of economic recovery and decarbonization. These include retrofitting buildings for better efficiency, accelerating renewable energy projects like solar PV farms, expanding rail infrastructure, and reforming fossil fuel subsidies.
Of crucial concern for treasuries, the IEA report presents the abatement cost for each measure analyzed, which is a measure of the financial cost or savings associated with reducing emissions by 1 tonne of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Many energy efficiency measures, the report notes, have a negative abatement cost, which means they can save consumers and industry money while reducing emissions.
Among the other benefits accrued, the IEA says its plan would result in a 5% reduction in air pollution globally, give 420 million people in developing countries access to “clean cooking solutions” such as biogas and electricity, and provide electricity access to an additional 270 million people.
In remarks accompanying the report, IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said governments should take the opportunity to invest in sustainable solutions, or risk baking-in economic and environmental failure.
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol says governments have a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to put … [+] their economies on a sustainable course.
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“As they design economic recovery plans, policymakers are having to make enormously consequential decisions in a very short space of time,” Birol said. “These decisions will shape economic and energy infrastructure for decades to come and will almost certainly determine whether the world has a chance of meeting its long-term energy and climate goals.”
The remarks correspond closely with those of climate advocates and veterans such as Christiana Figueres, the climate diplomat who last month explained that the recovery from coronavirus had the potential to make or break the fight to reduce global emissions.
Indeed, the IEA is not the only agency to have presented a green recovery plan: in April, the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) unveiled a comprehensive, longer-term roadmap for reconfiguring the economy in the wake of coronavirus. And this month, management consultants McKinsey unveiled a strategy it says governments could use as a framework for deploying stimulus packages in a sustainable way. Such measures are supported by the available science: research by the University of Oxford indicates that investing in green infrastructure will not only lead to robust economic recovery but also to long-term positive outcomes for societies worldwide.
For its part, the IEA, a Paris-based organization which for many years was chiefly concerned with the supply of crude oil, has in recent years become something of an evangelist for sustainability. Last month the agency claimed that the European Green Deal would prove to be the “motor for the recovery” of the EU.
Introducing today’s report, Birol was unequivocal about the significance of the current moment. “Governments have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reboot their economies and bring a wave of new employment opportunities while accelerating the shift to a more resilient and cleaner energy future,” he said.
“Policy makers are having to make hugely consequential decisions in a very short space of time as they draw up stimulus packages. Our sustainable recovery plan provides them with rigorous analysis and clear advice on how to tackle today’s major economic, energy and climate challenges at the same time.”
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
