The billions of the energy transition and the risks of wastage

Tough times for those who thought, with naive enthusiasm, that the staggering sums poured by our states to facilitate the carbon transition would all be used wisely. What can now be referred to as green scandals have been occurring for some time, reflecting—or as a consequence of—governments engaging in a real race to spend the most to quickly achieve zero emissions. Here’s the Biden team planning to pour between 700 and 1,000 billion into energy transition, the European Union allocating 270 billion for its Green New Deal, to start with… Recently questioned at a conference in Morocco, former Governor of the Bank of England, Mike Carney, announces a figure of $130,000 billion that must imperatively be dedicated in the coming years by the nations of the world in favor of energy transition!

These absolutely staggering sums, intended to achieve respectable and ambitious goals, are, however, distributed hastily. It is easy to predict that they will not always end up in the right hands. It’s as if what matters is not so much the goal to be achieved as the desire of governments and some major private donors to demonstrate that they spare no expense. Controversies emerge, scandals too, sometimes even frauds. What could be more predictable, in reality, when oceans of liquidity are poured indiscriminately into a context where very few countries, if any, have yet put in place a strict control mechanism over how the beneficiaries ultimately use them?

This fever, affecting an increasing number of companies and investors eager not to miss out on the luxurious opportunities of this new Eldorado, is facilitated by deficient regulation because these green projects are not subject to the same monitoring rules as traditional investments. Thus, suspected of influence trafficking in a scandal involving lithium mines, a crucial material for electric cars, Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa had to resign a few days ago after being raided by investigators. The founder of Nikola, which manufactured electric trucks, was convicted of fraud, even though his company was valued at times more than Ford. Or that South Pole, a Swiss company active in carbon emissions compensation, is involved in a murky story related to Zimbabwe.

A significant portion of these hundreds of billions dedicated by our states to this green revolution will inevitably be missing, either illegally subtracted or simply squandered due to the lack of rigor of its beneficiaries.

It seems that our authorities are content to use old recipes in the face of a new market requiring regulation adapted to it. It becomes indecent today to boast about the billions dedicated to the zero-Carbon objective for the sole demagogic purpose of demonstrating to citizens the seriousness of the executive’s struggle to achieve this goal. In an era where often wide budget deficits of states combined with high-interest rates herald, if not a new storm, at least a forced return to sobriety, it is clear that the staggering amounts channeled towards energy transition are often very poorly spent.