Tackling a "mountain of carbon"

The developed world needs a "lifestyle change" if it is going to successfully tackle its energy and climate issues, Tsoi Mun Heng, Director of Energy Innovation Challenge Directorate, National Research Foundation of Singapore, told the Asia Future Energy Forum..

In his keynote on innovation, Tsoi explained that though Asia is facing widespread supply challenges--from issues such as the US' shale gas extraction, disruption driven by "Arab Spring" developments, and the Fukushima incident--"supply shock" is, in a sense, an issue of lifestyle.

He said the developed world's current lifestyle is "built upon a mountain of carbon", and warned that "to duplicate another mountain of carbon for Asia is not "sustainable".

However, with strong demand for fossil fuels from factories and power plants, Tsoi acknowledged that lowering their usage and staying below the 2oC rise in temperature are increasingly unlikely. In view of this, he said we must "reinvent our current lifestyle".

He also told the audience that while Asia does not have the same installed base as Europe, there is still a lot of technology leapfrogging opportunities. For instance, introduction of mobile telephony allowed India to skip the fixed line era, jumping into the mobile age. China is rolling out electric vehicles on a large scale, and installation of wind and solar capacity is going ahead at a rapid pace. Indonesia is focusing on geothermal technology, tapping on the heat of the Earth.

But Tsoi warned that existence of new technology is in itself insufficient and what is needed is a combination of human and financial resources, together with fostering the right environment for innovation. While funding at tertiary educational level is important, there is a need to nurture future innovators at primary educational level. There is also a need to convince banks and businesses that clean technology is not a financial blackhole, by using test-beds to demonstrate financial viability.

"The Stone Age didn't end because we ran out of rocks. It ended because humans discovered something better," Mr Tsoi concluded. He told participants that the fossil fuel age is not going to end because of a scarcity of fossil fuels, warning that reluctance to respond to climate change is not sustainable.

By :Ong Yu Hui, EMA