Jeremy Leggett argues in his book The Energy of Nations, published on Thursday, that big energy is about to repeat the behaviour of the financial sector that caused the recent economic downturn.
As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change prepares to publish a scientific assessment of climate change risk, Leggett urged government and business to nurture clean energy.
He has become the latest to sound alarm bells about a “carbon bubble” in the markets: the idea that fossil fuel is overvalued because it cannot all be burned if governments are to meet their carbon targets.Â
“Brain scientists tell us we have a very worrying collective tendency for blindness to the kind of risks that can crash economies, and imperil civilisations,” Leggett said. “The financial crisis suggests they are right. Now we need to worry that the energy industries are about to repeat the behaviour traits of the financial sector, and on multiple fronts.”
Leggett, who started his career in geological research funded by Shell and BP, worked for Greenpeace in the 1990s before turning to green technology. He is executive chairman of Solarcentury and chairman of Carbon Tracker, a think-tank that aims to align capital markets with climate policy. He has written a number of books on peak oil and global warming, including Half Gone, The Carbon War and The Solar Century.