PANEL: Is Western Energy Policy Causing Economic Self-Harm? | ARC Off-Stage Conversation

PANEL: Is Western Energy Policy Causing Economic Self-Harm? | ARC Off-Stage Conversation

we’re sitting here in London in the
United Kingdom the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution and over the last
20 years they’ve driven up electricity
prices so much and heating fuel costs
and energy sources of all kind they
haven’t seen a rise in 20 years because
whatever increase there is in the
paycheck it is immediately eaten up by
the added costs to avoid the existential
crisis My President is fighting back
because we found large reserves of oil
and gas in Sagal and of course everybody
El is trying to tell us not to tap into
it but of course we didn’t tap into it
so it is a very hypocritical standpoint
you know we in the west will stay energy
rich and prosperous but we’re not going
to allow you in the developing world to
burn coal nor will they fund hydrocarbon
projects
in we’re sitting here in London in the
United Kingdom the birthplace of the
Industrial Revolution and over the last
20 years they’ve driven up electricity
prices so much and Heating fuel costs
and energy sources of all kind that
they’ve actually had an unusual
phenomenon for a wealthy country they’ve
had a roughly 30% decline in their total
energy consumption as a nation they’re
proud of the 40% reduction in greenhouse
gas emissions they never mentioned that
the majority of it is just reduced
energy consumption and reduced energy
consumption from two sources one is
energy intensive manufacturing just left
it’s not made at a natural gas powered
Factory in the UK anymore it’s a coal
powered FL Asia and then loaded on a uh
you know a diesel powered tanker ship
and brought back um so that’s not really
greenhouse gas reduction right that’s
just exporting your emissions and then
they are the largest importer of
greenhouse gas emissions through the
manufactured products coming back into
the UK the other piece of that is
impoverishment if you make energy prices
more expensive lower income people they
don’t Heat their homes is warm they
don’t keep their houses at safe
temperature we saw significant rise in
excess deaths last winter because
heating prices were so high so look the
societal toll of this is large what’s
the case for this to reverse Brit
Britain is a wealthy developed country
do do people get to a point where they
say that’s enough where they connect to
the dots is there a case from optimism
here or is the Germany’s and United
Kingdoms just going to continue to
de-industrialized to the
end one of the first things I did when I
flew to London uh in my Hotel was to put
Classic FM on because I like that radio
I I was a student in Britain I used to
listen to it all the time and what
immediately struck me that every
advertisement every pause between
between music was filled with some sort
of appeals for people to uh save energy
for people H H how they should heat
their homes basically as far as I can
tell um that there is a massive
propaganda war going on in the United
Kingdom and in other Western democracies
where um some people with financial
interests some people who are just
simply interested and of course the
government is pushing this uh uh
apocalyptic existential crisis down
people’s throes so that they are willing
to put up with the reduction in their
standard of living another little viette
from my time in unic Kingdom when I was
a student here up in Scotland I was a
night shift um gas station attendant and
I remember back then I think a liter of
liter of petrol they call it petrol here
we call it gas that was 1 pound now it’s
about 150 but if you filled your car
with 10 lb of petrol 8 lb of that was
tax that went straight to the
government and it is a fact that living
has
become very expensive in certain ways
meaning if your economy grows at 1% a
year or 1 and a half% a year in Europe
they grow at a lower rate than the
United States so let’s say 1% a year and
maybe your salary appreciate in real
terms by 1% a year so maybe one every
year you’re becoming 1% better off but
the energy consumption the the energy
taxes that uh allow you to heat your
home or cool your home or the energy
taxes that go into production of food
eat it all up you actually end up being
poorer I have no doubt that Europeans
are in many ways or rather they feel
much poorer they haven’t seen a rise in
20 years because whatever increase there
is in the paycheck it is immediately
eaten up by the added costs of to to
avoid the existential crisis do I
believe that there is there is hope of
of course I believe there is hope um but
the only way we can do it is by
penetrating by destroying this this
massive propaganda machine that keeps on
worrying people to death and that’s what
we are doing at ARC so mgat we’re
talking about in in U countries that
have been captured by an ideology or
whatever particularly in Europe if
contined to elevate Energy prices
actually shrink what they make here I
think lower the standard living of lower
income people but if we look in the
developing world you know I think of
India or Indonesia or Vietnam their
energy consumptions growing rapidly
their standard of livings Rising
actually an incredibly positive tread
maybe even reinforced a little bit by
their energy cost advantages drawing
more manufacturing there that’s being
exported out of Europe is there case for
optimism what’s what’s going to drive
the progress in Africa for example your
own country of senagal or european
possible countries or policies and
Western policies going to be able to
strangle that or is Africa and Sagal
going to move forward in its own way and
avoid some of the lunacy we’re talking
about yeah no so for me um the reason
why I’m very Optimist at least
optimistic at least for Africa and the
rest of uh the global South even though
yes we have our problems is because we
definitely are not buying it to the
nonsense of the West we really are not
and maybe I like to tell people on us
the signal is not lost in the noise I
think in the was there’s so much noise
there’s too much noise all of this is
It’s noise noise noise all of these
people playing around uh but us um the
reality and I think some of you called
it realism plate realism or something I
think we’re very much in the in the Fick
of it we when you’re below your when
you’re well below your 4,000 kilowatt um
per hour you know consumption you know
you’re it’s right there in your face so
we don’t have a luxury of the nonsense
but you guys have just subjected
yourselves to we just don’t have it and
so it’s saving us right now honestly
we’re looking at the west and think and
a a kid not we are thinking what is it
that there’re smoking over there what is
it and our youth has no patience for
none any of these nonsense including the
um identity um identity culture wars we
don’t have patience for any of that
again uh the reality Keeps Us grounded
because we’ve got bigger problems than
any of that stuff and so the the the the
the signal is not lost in the noise for
us so that’s the reason why I’m super um
you know optimistic about it but where I
want to tell the West to so our people
are going to fight My President is
fighting back because we found large um
reserves of oil and gas in Sagal and of
course everybody else is trying to tell
us not to tap into it but of course we
didn’t tap into it and if they’re going
to try to tell us uh if they’re going to
try to force our hand
by closing their bank accounts which by
the way with ESG but was another nasty
marriage right um some financing
corporations could not Finance um fossil
fuel related projects and
infrastructures because ESG supposedly
so if the West wants to play that nasty
game with us we’re going to turn over to
China and as West really want that
because if you think we’re going to sit
there and wait for death you are you are
blinding self so this is this is what’s
going to happen but I have a way we’re
going to get it and once again I will
tell the West how much more suicidal are
you going to be you’re doing that to
yourself and meanwhile basically pushing
an entire continent on the hands of
China which supposedly is your by now I
think everybody’s talking about how a
CCP and let’s be clear we’re talking
about the CCP not the Chinese people not
peret so there to me that’s what I’m
saying so bottom line is we are not
going to sit there and just wait for
death we’re going to do something and um
it’s going to be up to the west to take
a lesson from us and or say hey we’re
going to turn around so I don’t know but
um right but I want to make one I want
to make one more Point um I think that
if the extreme environmentalists are
going to succeed they can only succeed
if these environmental measures happen
gradually in slow increments like a frog
being um being killed by turning up the
temperature in a in in water you know be
by the time it realizes what’s happening
it’s it’s already half dead right so so
you want to boil the Frog very slowly so
the only way they can succeed if this
goes on for decades these these slow
incremental uh turns of the
screw when you have a sudden energy
crisis which is what happened after the
Russian invasion of Ukraine things go
out of whack very very quickly I I
genuinely believe that with the Russian
invasion of Ukraine it actually
helped many people change their
attitudes to nuclear in the last in the
last two years we have seen a massive
shift in terms of the acceptability of
nuclear power that was obviously not
something that anybody expected to
happen but once gas prices just suddenly
went to $2
$300 per metric ton suddenly people
realiz do oh my God we need a different
source of energy so so you’re getting
your realism as well so those crisis
help people those crisis those crisis do
help and and I don’t think that the
Russian invasion of Ukraine is the last
crisis that they are going to encounter
um maybe you’ll have an extra cold
winter uh maybe some other International
conflict and before you know it we are
back to seeing those prices of oil and
gas suddenly spiking um and and and
that’s completely unsustainable and it
exposes the governing Elites in Britain
and in the United States to charges that
you are not really looking after us at
all because we are dying here because we
cannot heat our homes yeah so I going to
follow that theme Marian with Robert
here so you said the West doesn’t want
Sagal to develop their oil and gas
resources so Robert help us understand
why does a Western Government think
that’s a positive climate policy like if
if there’s Energy Technologies that are
better
it doesn’t matter the supply of oil and
gas we’re just going to go to something
better but if you produce less you’re
going to push the prices up maybe that
makes it so people can you could raise
Energy prices and that’ll re reduce
consumption of it but yet our president
of the United States has been going
around a Venezuela and Saudi Arabia
asking for more oil because he doesn’t
want high gas prices how do we Square
these
things how much time do we have
for In The Blood Robert Bryce bash us up
we have some time though Robert this is
a big question
well it is and I want to come back to uh
so Maran you’re native of Poland am I uh
C Slovakia Slovakia yes so so Slovakia
because I want to come back to that
because I think you made a really
important point about there are certain
countries in in Europe that are going to
embrace nuclear more quickly and Poland
being one of them Romania has already
made big moves to adopt nuclear in the
wake of this Invasion yes seeing a big
turn around here in Britain um and
France I think so I’m interested you
know I’m kind of I might create a bing
pool which country is going to be the
first one that deploys new nuclear
because I think this is a really key
indicator of what you just talked about
so
um but as far as the politics of this
it’s really important to think about
okay well how does this play right
because the last thing an incumbent
president or a sitting president wants
is high gasoline prices and why is that
well consumers in general and I know
this and you know talk you ask people
how much do you pay for electricity they
have no idea on per unit basis right
they don’t understand what their
kilowatt hour is most most people most
the vast majority and I know this I’m
talking to energy audiences they don’t
know the indry energy and power they
don’t know their own business fa well so
they don’t really know how to read their
electricity bill they only know if it’s
going up or down but they don’t know
what the unit cost per kilowatt hour
that they’re paying but they will tell
you to the penny how much they paid
gasoline the tax last time they fil up
so that to them is an indicator of their
wealth or relative wealth or relative
poverty is the price of gasoline cuz
they sit there for a full 2 or 3 minutes
staring at that price and the price is
on thing you know you don’t go to the
grocery store and see the price of milk
is $5.49 today but at the gas station
you see it’s $3.50 a gallon that’s it’s
$
34991 right but even that and this is a
thing even those last two decimals
people look at them yeah because they
have right it’s 35 359 not 349 well 3499
right yeah I mean right right so so from
a political standpoint it’s very well
understood right it’s why carbon taxes
will never work right because they’re
going to tell you know no politicians
going to get a s up there and say I want
to make your energy more expensive
because people sit there and they it’s a
bad idea I don’t like that right because
it’s going to make their cost of living
H so there’s this um bifurcation and
this duality in the political system
right where Biden goes to Maduro the
Narco right who succeeded the chav Vista
who was a narco
right who devastated Venezuela with had
inand we’re not going to call you a
narco anymore start producing more oil
so maybe we can bring gasoline prices
down because they know from a political
standpoint if High gasoline prices are
bad for them right and president mcon in
in France learned this very well after
the the yellow vest movement right and
and tro learned it very well in Canada
after the yellow what was the equivalent
of the lest movement there right oh
you’re going to raise our energy price
well we don’t like this and we will
gladly bring our or the Dutch swers
bring our tractors into the center of
town to show you how much we don’t like
it but at the same time they will adhere
to these policies with World Bank export
import Bank um other multilateral
bilateral lending institutions we’re not
going to lend any money to those you
know those you know we’re going to let
the dark people stay in the dark we’re
going to not going to lend to those
people because climate change right so
it is a very um hypocritical standpoint
it is a uh immoral approach you know we
in the west will stay energy rich and
prosperous but we’re not going to allow
you in the developing world to burn coal
and so now the World Bank has declared
they will not fund any more Coal Fired
power plants this has been the last one
they financed was four or five years ago
and nor will they fund hydrocarbon
projects in general so um I think this
opens the door for China it opens the
door for other lenders maybe the
Japanese that’s right the Russians I
don’t know the Russians are
for nuclear and Ross Adam is one of the
most successful deployers of nuclear
power all around the world as a matter
of fact Burk Faso is in Talking is in
with Russia for a nuclear plant and I’m
like go to Cole they we’ll come back to
nuclear Robert I think I read in your
paper just recently yeah Coal’s been 35
to 38% of global electricity for like 40
years yeah so stopping lending today
sounds like well it’s almost gone we’ll
let it Peter out still by far the
world’s largest source of electricity
certainly the main source in the
developing countes additional
electricity yeah but yet we’re the World
Bank we’re standing against that today
right so yeah I mean these Western
countries and Britain was one of them
you know wearing their you know getting
tennis elbow patting themselves on the
back we are closing our coal plants
aren’t we
virtuous look at what is happening in
China last year Global energy monitor
reported last year China permitted two
new Coal Fired teres per week that’s a
GW of new Coal Fired capacity this is
the what I call the iron law of
electricity people countries and
businesses will do whatever they have to
do to get the electricity they need they
will steal electricity I saw that in
India they will pay the generator Mafia
I saw that in bero I they will get small
generators and go to the gasoline
station and after hurricanes because
they want mom and they want Mom to have
a refrigerator and air conditioning at
night right they will do whatever they
have to do including burning coal this
is no
surprise so where if but if you know
this oh it’s just China and India well a
lot of it is China and India there have
no doubt about it the coal consumption
in Asia Pacific any look at the
statistics is soaring falling in the
west falling in North America falling in
Europe okay so what that that’s you know
compared to these massive increases um
in Asia it it’s meaningless and yet
there’s this self- congratulatory effort
and and Michael Bloomberg I don’t know
if I mentioned him I mentioned the $500
million doll gift on to Beyond carbon
their goal is to close every last coal
plant in America every one of them they
say that is their stated goal so you
know this is this kind of virtue
signaling from one of the richest people
in the world oh he’s going to help us
save the climate well that’s not going
to be the case in Indonesia Vietnam uh
China India or many of the other dozen
or so countries that have have announced
or or built new coal plants or
commission new coal plants last year I
would suspect all of us are pro- nuclear
but if we look at the pace of that it’s
probably not going to be the main source
of new electricity in Africa or am I
could to be that I mean actually it
could be bjor is not here with us today
bej Peters but um definitely um for this
uh new product that they’re building an
African nation is going to be it seems
like their first customer and so uh no
no no I think you you might be very
surprised and uh Robert it would be good
to look at uh your I didn’t know you
were having these bets you know going on
but we might actually come out of
nowhere and surprise you because we’re
also looking at mini um you know react
manyi react small yeah we’re looking at
those as well we’re looking at those as
well uh and us with a smart with a
startup cities that we’re building
definitely energy is a big question so
definitely um the manyi um reactors have
been part of the of a mix that we’re
going to try to put in these cities so I
think you might be very surprised as to
how things evolve over the next um
decade so yeah yeah yeah and forget that
South Africa does actually have a new we
do I new country two of them yeah
nuclear in Slovakia what’s what’s the
what’s the feeling of the people there
public opinion on energy are they Pro
nuclear pro coal are they Pro green
policies Pro where where is where’s the
well they just switched on a new reactor
this year um I think it’s the the fourth
and they’re very proud of that uh
they’re now an electricity exporter
precisely because uh they have they have
nuclear but uh because I’m a native
speaker I’ve been uh I’ve been observing
that over the last few years the kind of
environmental concerns that we have in
the west have been slowly spreading in
Eastern Europe as well especially
amongst the young interesting um yeah um
and and and I think it’s partly because
these countries are small and they have
languages that nobody else understands
they read a lot of and you know they
read a lot of um news stories in in in
the west they translate them because you
know they think it’s uh important and um
um they present it to the young so
actually we do have an increase in uh
the popularity and electoral presence of
uh green parties uh and um if they’re
not necessarily called Green then then
parties which have a great green tint to
to them because because parties in
pursuit of power wish to cater to the
median voter and to the young voter and
the young voter is becoming more and
more um um environmentally conscious now
the thing is that Eastern Europe has
made a tremendous amount of progress on
Environmental Quality when it shut down
communism when communism
disappeared um uh which was which was
insanely um energy wasteful because that
there was no really price mechanism to
to show you what what made sense and
what didn’t um the reverse got cleaned
up the air got cleaned up um tree
coverage began again but my point is
that um uh but my point is that none of
these countries are really at a uh at an
economic stage where can they can afford
the kind of uh environmental policies
that we have in the west and what
worries me is that the the poor parts of
Europe will be hit with similar policies
especially if they are imposed on them
by the European Union because the
European Union has to create policies
for the entire
union now the difference I’ve looked at
this maybe 10 years ago but the
difference between the richest country
in Europe which was at that point was
Luxembourg and the poorest which was
Romania is 14
to1 to put that in American context the
difference between the richest American
state which again 10 years ago was was
North Dakota and the poorest was
Mississippi is 2 to one now imagine
imposing policies environmental policies
Draconian environmental policies or a
continent where you have 14 to1
difference yeah the Luxembourg people
might just about cope with it the people
in Romania and Bulgaria they’re going to
get hammered so let me if I may just
jump in real quickly because well too
quick points and you I I think it’s
really important about this disparity
right the massive disparity between
luxemborg and and uh Romania
Romania here’s a quick data point uh I I
a longtime critic of electric vehicles
you know my view they’re the next big
thing and they always will be right
they’ve been in the market for 100 years
oh they have 6% of all sales okay great
but you know not very there aren’t that
many people who want that car right okay
so California has 29 times here’s the
number 29 times more electric vehicles
per capit than Mississippi you mentioned
Mississippi well why is it well you know
well part of its mandates right part of
its fact part of this California but 29x
right now that’s just one indicator
right but when you talked about that
disparity I think it’s important to
remember we’re talking about all these
different ideas about climatism and
about adoption of Technology adoption of
mandates it’s all going to be very
geographically defined right so um you
know what will work in elorg or be
acceptable there is going to be far
different than what’s going to be
acceptable in Romania we see the same in
the United States where you have band on
natural gas that are they are will
likely be one state new natural gas
hookups will likely be banned in the
state of California very soon they’re
already banned in 76 municipalities or
counties in California but you have
other states like Texas saying you
cannot that we have a ban on banss right
you know a number of states have banned
banss on natural gas so there’s going to
be a lot of regional variation in in
this climatism and the reaction to the
climatism right there’s going to be a
lot of backlash and you about Hope and
you know what are the things that are
hopeful I think the political leaders in
Europe are starting to get the message
and we talked about the yellow best mov
I did mention it earlier remember just a
few weeks ago rishy sunak backpedal I
mean there some of these are back these
politicians are backpedaling as fast as
they can because you know they they’re
looking at this Net Zero policy and
Rishi sunak said effectively yeah we’re
not going to do that now we’re realistic
and pragmatic those were the words he
used right and what happened in the
immediate week afterwards his pool
numbers went up 4%
so when do you guys see the the the The
Clash the the how do you call it the
Clash back happening when the
politicians because they have to pay
attention because at some point realism
is going to hit in the in the form of
votes when do you think it’s going to
start to clash with this other industry
we talked about that’s in for money and
what’s G to happen I think it’s already
started in Europe I don’t think it’s
started so much in the US yet but I
think the Democratic party I think Biden
is clearly looking over his should
children and they’re looking at what’s
happening in in Europe and
saying you know yeah are you know the
Davos crowd our friends at the you know
at the at the club at the country club
they’re okay with this but the people
the mass majority of Ching working
Working Class People they’re not and so
I think that’s going to be a source in
the US source of strength for the
Republicans right if they ever get their
I mean I mean they’re so disorganized
right but but as a as a as a voting
block M they’re appealing to the working
class and and the poor and saying what
these elites on the Democratic side are
pushing and I think it’s very fair
diverses they’re pushing regressive
energy policies and in my view I’ll end
with this all of this decarbonization
effort it’s all regressive all hurts the
pooring middle class all it yeah yeah so
we started the dialogue today by I think
pretty violently and quickly agreeing
that energy equals Prosperity more
energy equals people better standard
lives and more opportunities so now you
got to pull out your crystal balls and
tell me what’s going to happen clearly
people in the developing world and they
are at current rate growing energy
production at a pretty good clip in most
of those countries do these Trends
continue we’re talking about some
wealthy countries that have actually
gone the wrong direction what’s the big
change of the next 30 years do we
continue to grow Global energy at
similar rates today do we grow it faster
because the political backlash yeah TS
back this sort of anti-energy clock or
does that anti-energy uh climatism win
spread even wider and therefore the
growth of global energy consumption and
production slows dramatically I think
that um I I think that so long as there
is interjurisdictional competition in
the world yes um
the energy consumption will rise at
least in some places maybe in all places
as countries learn from other people’s
mistakes such as what’s happening in
Germany right now that they switched off
their nuclear power stations and now
burning coal they are laughing stock for
the rest of the world and everybody
knows that what’s happening in Germany
is completely irrational so we need to
maintain interjurisdictional competition
so that different countries can try to
go in different ways and we will then
see who is the fool like the Germans
right now and who is smart like the
swedes and the and the French who who
derive 75% of their electricity from
from nuclear and that it brings me back
to this difference between the Davos and
the anti- Davos Davos one of the reasons
why they want Global governance is
precisely so that there is less
competition we are in favor of more
competition and from learning because it
is only through competition that you
learn I am a huge proponent of
globalization I believe that
globalization has been in tremend
tremendous good for the world I’m an
opponent of globalism in a sense that I
don’t believe in global governance Davos
wants to govern us globally I want as
much competition and for countries to go
in different directions and try out
different things and some of them will
fail and some of them will succeed and
hopefully we will learn from the ones
who succeed and that’s exactly why I’m
startup cities all the way let the
Thousand Nations Bloom and let everybody
try different things and we learn all of
us collectively learning from that and
like you said globalization free
movement of people Goods goods and
services as well as well as ideas all
for it but uh beyond that I don’t want
to be trapped to any to anything or to
anyone uh these free cities you’re
envisioning and I love that Movement by
the way is that for is the belief that
they’re going to be able to control
their own Energy System you’re not at
the mercy of the country you’re is
they’re going to produce your own energy
in the free CYS yep yep y fantastic I I
I think 10 years I think it the next 10
years I’m long-term bullish to the
United States I’m absolutely a homer um
you know in that regard the US has still
incredible advantages over the rest of
the world in terms of geography in terms
of demographics Workforce uh 17 of the
top 25 universities in the world 40 of
the top 17 seven of the top 10 17 of the
top 25 40 of the top 100 ear in the
United
States we have the rule of law we have
abundant natural resources super
abundant so absolutely bullicious on the
United States despite the Myriad
difficulties that are in the near term
bearish on Europe I think Europe is
facing enormous problems both on the
energy side demographic side on the
immigration side um they’re they have
bad governance just like the us but
they’re also wrestling with this the EU
commission and the European commission
who’s going to be in charge I I just see
as absolute mess in terms of how they
come come out of this particularly on
the energy side of it when they’ve you
know hitch themselves to Russian gas and
now that’s going away and they’re going
to have to buy natural gas that is now
selling in the Global Market at five
times the price of gas in the US like
Henry hubs about $3 ttf 15 um about the
global South and the rest of the world I
think that these those countries I you
know if they’re going to look out for
themselves and I I’m long-term bullish
on India um because I think that they
have there’s it’s a dynamic educated
economy and I they’re going to do what
they need to do regardless of what the
US says and so I I think India has a lot
of of Promise China I can’t I can’t
predict Russia’s in world of hurt
regardless of what happens in Ukraine uh
from the demographic demographics and so
on so but it all comes to and come back
to these you know where you started it
it’s going to be the story of energy who
can have cheap abundant reliable energy
resilient systems that’s going to
determine the prosperity for the next 10
years the next 20 years the next 30
Years the next 50 years that’s going to
be the key we all ended also with a
common theme here that competition
different cities different countries
different states doing different things
um is what’s required for Innovation and
progress and eventually you think the
the laggards follow on with the leaders
I’ve always said that in in the United
States thank God we have thank God we
have California you know learn
from mistakes just a a state with an
abundance of riches and opport to promis
land and they’ve they’ve been able to
engineer the highest adjusted poverty
rate in the nation yeah and they’ve
continued to to stumble on energy and
therefore export jobs and lower
qualities of living I’m hoping more and
more people are watching that
unfortunately my home state of Colorado
is trying to go the direction of
California so maybe things aren’t bad
enough there yet uh to see it but I
think this competition of I spoke in
Nebraska recently second most reliable
electricity Grid in the country and
somewhere around the fifth least
expensive electricity so what’s
happening a flood of businesses and new
demand inside Nebraska they’re growing
their grid with a diversity of sources
you know success tends to snowball and
and failure tends to snowball too except
in politics where failure can continue
for a long time thank you so much Maran
MCAT Robert and everyone who organized
the ark Forum what a great three days
we’ve had and what an enlightening
dialogue with all of you today thank you
thank you so much thank you so much
thank you Chris

Are Britain and Germany committing economic self-harm? Is Western climate anxiety stifling African economies? Narratives of panic and despair are increasingly influencing the fundamentals of economic policy and energy policy.

Our latest ARC Off-Stage Conversation is a rallying call for an honest assessment of the direction of travel of energy policy. Germany and Britain are not alone in committing economic self-harm. This conversation, with experts Marian Tupy, Magatte Wade, Chris Wright, and Robert Bryce, lays out why energy equals GDP, and how outsourcing energy consumption to other nations is not a green policy.

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In Chris Wright’s words:

The UK has “driven up electricity prices so much… They’re proud of the 40% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, but what they never mentioned was that the majority of this is just reduced energy consumption.

“Energy intensive manufacturing just left. It’s not made at a natural gas-powered factory in the UK anymore. It’s a coal-powered plant in Asia and then loaded on diesel-powered tanker ship and brought back. That’s not really greenhouse gas reduction, right? That’s just exporting your emissions.”

It’s time for an honest conversation about energy. Too often policy makers make choices at the behest of activists which are irrational, anti-human, and fail to account for complexity. Yes, we have a duty to environmental stewardship. But panic driven policy making is almost always bad policy making.

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Subscribe to our Channel to be the first to catch the next ARC Off-Stage Conversation: https://www.youtube.com/@arc_conference

GO DEEPER:

– Robert Bryce’s paper for ARC Research – ‘Powering the Unplugged: Overcoming the Barriers to Electrification in the Developing World’ – https://www.arcforum.com/energy-and-environment/powering-the-unplugged-

– Magatte Wade’s paper for ARC Research – ‘The African Climate Paradox’ – https://www.arcforum.com/energy-and-environment/the-african-climate-paradox-

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We are delighted to announce that the next ARC Conference will take place between 17-19 February 2025! Subscribe to our mailing list for updates and follow us on social media as we explore the better story:

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ARC, the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship, is a global community with a vision of a world where every citizen can prosper, contribute, and flourish.

Join us in shaping this vision, as we draw on the best of our inheritance to build hope-filled future. Let’s seek solutions to the problems we face that tap into humanity’s highest virtues and remarkable capacity for innovation and ingenuity.

Learn more at https://www.arcforum.com

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