'Green' economy

Hillary Clinton stops by China as part of her East Asia trip. Besides the economy, which is the obvious issue (which take centre stage compared to human rights), both countries are talking about the possibility of developing clean energy and energy efficiency in buildings.

This development reminds me of my discussion on sustainable development with some of my course mates early this week. We are discussing on environmental standard imposed on shipping industry. Should be higher as to minimize environmental harm emanates from the shipping business, or should we lower the standard.

The tug of war between economy and environment is always a dilemma. For many, it is a zero sum game where one must prevail at the expense of the other. Should it be that way?

A higher standard in shipping operations means higher start up cost to the shipping operator. Higher cost means the fee of transporting the goods will be higher. As neither the manufacturer nor the shipping owner will absorb the cost, the cost will be passed to the consumer by paying higher price for the goods. This will burn a big hole to consumers' pocket. Prices must be kept low at all cost. Don’t forget that this people will vote. To embark into green initiatives that will raise prices can be considered as political suicide. Alas, developed countries had polluted the world for hundreds of years, so this is our turn to pollute.

As the environment cannot speak for itself, the cost that the ‘environment’ has to pay for the pollution remains below the surface.

The key is to come up with a method and processes that is not only environmentally friendly, but friendly to the consumers’ pocket too.

We often resolved in using the technology which is ‘outdated’ regardless how much pollution it release. The argument is simple; to come up with a new technology requires tones of money for research and development. We need to spur the economy, and it needs it NOW! Our herd mentality justifies our rationale that we are tackling the issue the right way. However, there is a world of different between doing things right compared to do the right thing.

Not so long ago, we criticized the government for raising the fuel price. We demand for more subsidy, we are ready to witch hunt Petronas for making a lot of money but doing little for the…(the overused term right now) the ‘Rakyat’. However, we never want to fail to look at ourselves and see how we can change our life styles. Despite being at the mercy of oil prices, this government fails to seriously looking at renewable energy.


One of my friends brought up the issue on hybrid car. It cost too much he said. He suggested that the government should lower down the price. The cost of a hybrid car is high due to tax; imposed to ‘shield’ the national car industry. Do we come up with our own version of hybrid car…NO! We succeeded in creating a generation hungry for petrol and this generation wants it to come cheap. This sickness can be seen from one of the politician (in his election debate) that our petroleum reserved can be replenished. What we need to do is dig! dig! and keep on digging.

By imposing high tax against this hybrid car, we had deprived our society a choice to change to a more fuel efficient car; all in the name of national interest.

The current US administration had pledged billion of dollars to create ‘green’ employment. Rhetoric? Perhaps. However, consider this facts;

General Electric (GE) had emphasis on ’17 clean-technology businesses’ expected to expand sales of products from $10 billion in 2004 to $20 billion by 2010. Each unit within GE have their own target to reduce emissions of CO2.

Wal Mart is constantly finding ways to reduce its carbon foot print in its operation. By reducing its carbon foot print, Wal Mart has to be very efficient in its operation. Efficient operation means lower operating cost which translated to cheaper price.

Being the ‘first’ in the ‘green revolution’, these companies will have the competitive advantage over their competitors. They are taking competitiveness to the next level…and we still lagging behind by relying to the outdated technology to compete.

The future belongs to ‘green revolutionist’.