The transition is an industry

I know, shocking. Totally unexpected and none of us could have seen it coming. And yet, one executive of an Indian climate think tank said another quiet part aloud a couple of months ago. It passed unnoticed because of course it would, it’s important.

Commenting on a prediction of global water shortages, with China and India especially vulnerable, Arunabha Ghosh, CEO of the Council on Energy, Environment and Water said the following:

“It’s not just the old industries like steel making, but newer ones like manufacturing semiconductor chips and the transition to clean energy that are going to require a lot of water. Asia is the growth engine of the world, and these industries are new drivers for its economic growth.” 

Now, you may wonder why I’m wasting your time with that possibly inadvertent admission. You’d be right to wonder since no one has denied that wind and solar are businesses, and that green hydrogen production is a business as is the manufacturing of EVs.

Well, I’m wasting your time with that because it’s one thing to say that wind power development, for example, is a business. It’s quite another to say that the transition is a business. Because the transition is being sold as our lifebelt to a livable future (or was it a livable planet?), not as a business.

Sure, that lifebelt to a livable future — or possibly a planet — is made up of various climate-saving (climate-protecting? climate-mitigating? It’s so hard to follow the semantics) businesses but that the transition itself is a business has not exactly been frequently mentioned, let alone elaborated on.

There is perfectly good reason for that. Saying that the transition is an industry is like saying that wind, solar, and biomass are not really renewable, which they aren’t. It’s like saying that compared to the effect solar activity has on the Earth’s climate, human activity’s effect on that climate is akin to the trace a frightened grasshopper or a ladybird would leave on your hand when you catch it.

Saying that the energy transition is an industry is simply not said. It goes so sharply against the grain of the narrative that I’m amazed Mr. Ghosh still has a job. Probably because no one noticed what he said. And because, if someone noticed, the admission was rightly ignored on the basis that no one would pay attention. Well, they were wrong.