Net Zero 2050 aspirations are examined by Robert Lyman
in the context of global growth. Whatever “leadership” western countries may have enjoyed in the past is fast being overtaken by the economic and population growth in the non-OECD countries and especially in Asia….Just as China has over the past few decades taken its place as one of the largest and fastest growing economies in the world, a number of other “giants” are waiting in the wings, ready to take their places among the centres of global economic activity, with standards of living that approach those in the G7 countries today. Those waiting giants notably include India, Indonesia, Brazil, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria. Their rapidly increasing populations and economies will require much more energy, including the hydrocarbons like coal, oil, and natural gas the countries of the west relied on during their ascents to prosperity and world influence. With its ever-declining shares of global population and income, “the west” will not be able to constrain the aspirations, or the emissions, of the emerging giants. NetZero2050 goals by the West becomes a farce.