Energy transition largest greenwashing in history

We have used enormous amounts of fossil energy over the past century and those supplies are finite and contribute to global warming. That is why the future will only be about one thing: access to clean energy. However, there is a major problem with this view: the costs.

The costs of running a society on renewable energy are many times higher than if you extract fossil fuels from the ground. So we can use renewable energy. A civilization can run on it. But not the way we have structured our current civilization with, for example, its global just-in-time production chain and thousands of planes in the sky at the same time. Our current use of renewable energy relies on subsidies, legal changes and financial compensation to maintain current global consumption levels. But at sky-high costs for the industry, which has an enormous negative impact on our economy and prosperity. We already see this happening with, for example, deindustrialization in Germany.

Ukraine has woken up the Europeans
Energy therefore has a huge impact on our economy. Only we never had to think about it, because for the past 120 years - apart from recessions - we have had more energy at our disposal every year than the year before. We seemed to have more than enough energy. The war in Ukraine has woken up people when it comes to energy availability, especially in Europe. Many seem to have no idea how much our human civilization still relies on energy, especially fossil energy.

We seem to have a blind spot for the differences between types of energy. For example, coal is generally seen as a bad form of energy due to its high CO2 emissions. Let's replace it with a good form of energy, such as wind energy. But every form of energy is different when it comes to chemical, spatial and environmental properties. Very few are aware of this.

Renewable energy is not renewable
If we look further into the future, being CO2 neutral in 2050 is truly a fairy tale. Renewable energy is not renewable. You have to renew installations every 20, 30 years. Where do you put the sometimes toxic waste from the wind turbines and solar panels? Moreover, renewable energy has different properties as an energy source than coal and gas. It fluctuates. The sun does not always shine and the wind does not always blow strongly. As a result, wind and solar production does not match the demand profiles of consumers.

Sometimes we have way too much and sometimes no renewable energy at all. So either we match supply and demand using natural gas, nuclear energy or even coal or we have to store the surplus in batteries. For batteries, the question is how large that buffer should be. According to some it should be a month and according to others it should be two days. But whatever you choose, if we stop using fossil fuels and switch to 100% renewable energy, we will need hundreds of times as much solar and wind energy as we do now. Which alone places an enormous burden on public space.

Shadow side of the energy transition
And suppose we do that. Where do we get all the copper, lithium, vanadium, nickel and cobalt to expand so strongly? That is a major problem and brings us to the absolute dark side of the energy transition. Rare metals are essential for the production of electric vehicles, fighter jets, wind turbines and solar panels, as well as our smartphones, computers, tablets and other everyday devices. But most people actually know very little about how they are extracted, or the environmental and geopolitical costs of doing so. For example, in cobalt production in Congo, the dirty work in the toxic soil is done by children.

Breaking away from fossil fuels threatens to create a new dependency. China is by far the largest player in the battle for the raw materials of the future. Europe and the United States are largely dependent on the supply and processing of these raw materials from China. And that is dangerous, because just like oil and gas, raw materials can be used as a geopolitical weapon. To gain this geopolitical advantage, China has had to sacrifice a large part of its environment, because mining and refining these raw materials is anything but clean.

Open mines everywhere in Europe
To reduce its dependence on China, Europe wants to look for these raw materials at home. Silicon for solar panels is extracted from quartz in Norway. The metals needed for wind turbines are found throughout Scandinavia. There you will also find lithium and cobalt. But countries such as Spain and France also have large stocks. This means that mines will have to be opened everywhere in Europe.

But then it must be accepted that this is at the expense of the environment. The enormous quantities of rare metals required, which can only be extracted at the expense of major damage to the environment, make the energy transition actually the largest 'greenwashing' operation in history.

Kasper Walter

Kasper Walet is a former board member of the agricultural futures market. He has now been working under the name Maycroft for years as an independent adviser on energy and climate to governments and companies from all over the world.

© DCA Market Intelligence. This market information is subject to copyright. It is not permitted to reproduce, distribute, disseminate or make the content available to third parties for compensation, in any form, without the express written permission of DCA Market Intelligence.