Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, a wonderful blogger — you might not always agree with the guy, but he’s worth reading anyway — posted something recently on the widely reported “news” that the U.S. will boost energy production, blahblahblah.
His take: China’s got big energy resources, too . . . but it won’t be able to get at them — because of not enough water:
The clearest message is that water shortages in large parts of the world are the chief constraint on energy and power. Cooling a coal power plant without water is not easy, and solar parks are very thirsty.
Yes, China has the world’s biggest shale gas reserves at 36 trillion cubic metres, but much of it is in places like the Tarim Basin in Xinjiang with “severe water scarcity”.
He goes further, and introduces an idea (to me) — “water-adjusted GDP” –
Water will have to be rationed much more severely by price, as will electricity. That will be an extra cost/tax, a loss of competitive advantage. Ditto for India.
I was told a couple of years ago by Cheng Siwei – then head of China’s green energy drive – that the country’s economic growth over recent years has been negative if you adjust for eco-damage and exhaustion of non-renewable resources. This will soon become a tangible cost.
Water-adjusted GDP may yet become a vogue term.
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