BRIC set to beat rich nations in energy use by 2030: OECD

Brazil, Russia, India and China, also known as the BRIC group of countries, are expected to overtake the rich countries in primary energy consumption by 2030 and worsen their environmental calamities, Paris-based Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has warned.

Issuing the 2008 OECD Environmental Outlook yesterday, the rich country economic thinktank said "the primary energy consumption of Brazil, Russia, India and China together is expected to grow by 72 per cent between 2005 and 2030, compared with 29 per cent in the OECD countries."

"Unless ambitious policy action is taken, greenhouse gas emissions from just these four countries will grow by 46 per cent in 2030, surpassing those of the 30 OECD countries combined," it warned, maintaining that people in the BRIC countries are already facing many environmental problems.

The OECD estimates suggest that 63 per cent population in the BRIC countries is living under medium to severe water stress and this share is expected to increase to 80 per cent by 2030 unless radical measures are taken.

The OECD's economic-environmental projections indicate that world greenhouse gas emissions are expected to grow by 37 per cent to 2030 and by 52 per cent to 2050.

"Countries will need to shift the structure of their economies to move towards low carbon, greener and more sustainable future," said Angel Gurria, the OECD secretary general. "The costs of this restructuring are affordable, but the transition will need to be managed carefully to address social and competitiveness impacts," he said.

Adopting a traffic-light approach to classify how environmental problems are managed, OECD said countries needed to do more in global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water scarcity, ground water quality and agricultural water use, and pollution.

The report projects that world GDP will almost double by 2030 and it will cost 1 per cent of GDP to implement a package that can reduce key air pollutants by about a third and contain GHG emissions to about 12 per cent instead of the 37 per cent growth if no immediate measures are taken.

It has recommended a host of policies based on economic and market-based instruments. They include use of green taxes, efficient water pricing, emissions trading, polluter-pay systems, waste-charges, and eliminating environmentally harmful subsidies.