Global Energy Interconnection:A building block towards planetary stewardship

Climate change is no longer a distant threat.Its implications are already being felt around the globe in the form of heat waves [1],extreme weather,rising sea levels and a broad destruction of the natural environment.Global temperatures have been rising since the start of the industrial revolution.Today,they are 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrialization.Many scientists fear that we are well on track to add another 2 to 3 degrees in the coming decades.At the Paris Climate Summit in 2015,governments vowed to keep the rise of global temperatures well below 2 degrees Celsius.Yet,despite this pledge,the globe continues to warm up.According to the International Energy Agency,global energy-related CO2 emissions grew by 1.4% to a record of 32.5 giga tons in 2017 [2].In South East Asia alone,over 300 new coal-fired power plants are under construction or planning [3].

Many corporations,investors and consumers around the world are starting to understand that fundamental change is required and that low-carbon and resource-friendly practices are the only way forward.Over the past couple of years we have seen many developments on the governmental,finance,corporate,and consumer level that counter the trend of growing emissions:

· An increasing number of governments at national and sub-national levels around the world have started eliminating subsidies for fossil fuel,improving technical standards,and pricing carbon emissions.

· As the cost of capital for polluting industries is increasing and the valuation of “future-fit”corporations is appreciating,finance has started to play an important role in speeding up transformations as well.Investors are now starting to integrate environmental,social and governance(ESG) risks and opportunities in their decision making [4].

· Many corporations - even in countries where governments deny the existence of climate changehave started phasing out fossil fuel energy for their own operations.Over 1,000 corporations have already developed an internal price for carbon which in turn is having an impact on their new investments [5].And many corporations are embracing the concept and practice of the Circular Economy,reducing waste and emissions while reducing their ecological footprint [6].

· Consumers in many markets are adopting more sustainable lifestyles such as recycling and reducing meat consumption [7].

Unfortunately,despite much encouraging progress,these developments are not happening fast enough nor on a sufficiently large scale in order to replace industrial-era systems which continue to dominate most economic activities.Much greater efforts are required to avoid the very likely prospect of major disruptions and massive damages caused by global warming.There are many reasons why humanity is not responding faster.These include short-term vested interests of established industries opposing change,insufficient or inadequate communications by the academia to explain the meaning of scientific insights,and all kinds of behavioral barriers of people to the change of established lifestyles.

As many scientists argue,we have entered a new era.Humanity is now a geophysical force.Our impact on the natural environment is so big that nature's reaction to this impact is increasingly affecting our own ability to live healthy and secure [8].Human history and natural history can no longer be separated.Our assumptions about industrial-era value creation will soon have to give way to a new appreciation of the natural environment and this in turn will call for an entirely new concept of planetary stewardship.We can assume with scientific certainty that it is only a question of time when we will be forced to change our valuations and to search for a new balance where man and nature coexist in harmony.

The good news is that most of the solutions required to mitigate the grave risks associated with global warming and to create a low-carbon future are readily available.The bad news is that our mindsets and ideas that shape policy making and economic decision making are still rooted in the industrial era where pollution was free and the exploitation and destruction of natural resources was considered to have no consequences.

The Paris Summit was a high point as all governments recognized that climate change is a truly global challenge which requires everybody to cooperate.As the impact of climate change will increasingly challenge policymakers and individual people to respond,one could argue that a new sense of planetary stewardship will replace our current policymaking.In order to create sufficient momentum and scale,it is critical that governments provide the incentives and long-term perspectives that markets need.A fundamental point for policymakers must be the recognition that planetary boundaries affect everybody and that effective solutions can only be found if nation states cooperate [9].Once the impact of climate change is truly understood as a grave risk for humanity's survival,policymakers will undoubtedly collaborate.Will it divide nations and cultures with rich nations building walls and carbon dictatorships or will we be able to act in a rational way and combine all our efforts based on cooperation and transnational efforts that connect us rather than divide us?

Consider the episode that took place November 19,1985 when President Reagan and General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev met in Geneva at the peak of the Cold War.When they considered the hypothetical case of an extraterrestrial invasion they concluded that of course they would cooperate [10].Later President Reagan gave a speech based on his private discussions with General Secretary Gorbachev in which he stressed the common bonds of humanity.Will climate change become the common enemy that threatens all of humanity and will governments at some point direct their influence and power to cooperate in a joint effort to defeat this common enemy? The idea may sound far-fetched but we can assume that this will ultimately happen and planetary stewardship and climate security will become the new policy dogma.

We are still far away from the point where cooperation trumps the old power concepts and the rivalry over spheres of influence.Worse,we are currently in the dangerous state where the largest economy in the world at the federal level is turning inward and protectionist,turning back the clock and ignoring what needs to be done in order to prepare for the future.But other governments show greater foresight.Not only small economies such as Costa Rica and Sweden have clearly set their minds on becoming carbon neutral,showing that high standards of living and zero emissions can go hand-in-hand.Also the world's second largest economy,China,is making long-term strategic investments to create low carbon economies and is investing in new technology,electrification and renewable energy on a massive scale.Within a short period of time China has become the biggest investor in renewable energy and is now setting the tone on market transformations towards electrification,including in the automotive sector.

A systems view at market interdependencies as Fig.1 shows that ideas,dogmas and technology are the most powerful drivers of change.Idea power is the greatest power of all.Our entire value system and the way we assess future risks and opportunities are based on our perception of what matters to us.Ideas and dogmas shape government policies,consumer preferences and corporate and investors' decisions.Technology-the physical and practical application of ideasenables corporations and consumers to make smart choices that create value or benefits,thus enabling healthier and better lives.Human progress is powered by ideas and technology.

Fig.1 Market interdependencies

Technological change is driving down the cost of renewable energy and cost-effective solutions for energy storage are currently under development.Renewable energy investments already exceed investments in fossil fuel in the power sector and in many instances they are pricecompetitive with fossil fuel [11].Renewable energy,often in combination with new business models and IT solutions,allows less developed countries to leapfrog pollution-intensive investments.

The transformation of the energy systems plays a particular important role as it underpins all economic activities.Electrification based on clean energy and investments in the infrastructure that connect renewable energy production,distribution and smart applications as advocated by Global Energy Connection (GEI) is central to all these efforts.There is already ample evidence of how the right infrastructure investments based on high voltage AC/DC transmissions can bring clean energy and smart applications to scale [12].

Accelerating electrification and scaling up the use of renewable energy as advanced by GEI can play a catalytic role in transforming energy systems and thus lay the foundation for a low-carbon future.As the window of opportunity to avert the grave risks associated with global warming is soon closing,there is now an urgent need to overcome the barriers that hold us back to build a sustainable future as fast as possible and on a massive scale.

Through GEI China is de facto creating one of the first building blocks of planetary stewardship.In the meantime policymakers in many countries whose mindsets are still rooted in the past promote protectionist and inward-oriented ideas should be reminded that interconnection promoting clean energy is not only critical to avoid the grave risks of climate change but it also promotes mutual dependencies that ultimately help foster a peaceful coexistence.It may well be that the state of nature has not changed much and the thinking of Western World historians and philosophers such as Thucydides,Hobbes and Locke is still relevant.But history has already shown us that peace depends on openness and commerce which in turn foster mutual understanding,create opportunities for prosperity and also act as a barrier against hostilities.And once global warming is understood by everybody as an existential threat,even those policymakers who thrive on fear-mongering will have no choice but to cooperate.We have to get ready now and prepare for the future.

As we are entering a new epoch where man is becoming a geo-physical force and natural boundaries will increasingly force us to adopt to a new world where climate security and healthy and smart survival will shape our actions one way or the other,there will be a premium on preparedness.Working towards Global Energy Interconnection is arguably the smartest way to lay the foundation for a prosperous,peaceful,and secure future.