Institute > How to Kill an Economy. Britain leads dash to explore for oil in war-torn Somalia. Engineers and visitors tour an exploratory well in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region.
Photograph: Reuters Britain is involved in a secret high-stakes dash for oil in Somalia, with the government offering humanitarian aid and security assistance in the hope of a stake in the beleaguered country's future energy industry. Riven by two decades of conflict that have seen the emergence of a dangerous Islamic insurgency, Somalia is routinely described as the world's most comprehensively "failed" state, as well as one of its poorest. Its coastline has become a haven for pirates preying on international shipping in the Indian Ocean. David Cameron last week hosted an international conference on Somalia, pledging more aid, financial help and measures to tackle terrorism. Achieving universal energy access. For decades, achieving universal energy access has been a key development goal.
Once solved, the resolution of many other development challenges might follow: lighting, cooking, heating, cooling, mobility and communications. But the International Energy Agency's World Energy Outlook for 2011 estimates that 1.3 billion people across the world do not yet have access to electricity and 2.7 billion rely on traditional biomass for their energy needs. If we continue as we are, according to a recent report from development NGO Practical Action, 900 million people will not have access to electricity in 2030 and 3 billion will still be cooking with traditional fuels.
That means 900 million people will live without decent lighting in their homes, and many millions will die of avoidable, smoke-related diseases. In the run-up to the UN conference on sustainable development, Rio+20, achieving universal energy access remains a complex problem. Doing the maths in this way is simple. Winds of change blow through China as spending on renewable energy soars. The remote, wind-blasted desert of northwestern Gansu could be the most unloved, environmentally abused corner of China.
It is home to the country's first oilfield and several of the coalmines and steel factories that have contributed to China's notoriety as the planet's biggest polluter and carbon dioxide emitter. But in the past few years, the landscape has started to undergo a transformation as Gansu has moved to the frontline of government efforts to reinvent China's economy with a massive investment in renewable energy.
The change is evident soon after driving across the plains from Jiuquan, an ancient garrison town on the Silk Road that is now a base for more than 50 energy companies. Wind turbines, which were almost unknown five years ago, stretch into the distance, competing only with far mountains and new pylons for space on the horizon. Jiuquan alone now has the capacity to generate 6GW of wind energy – roughly equivalent to that of the whole UK. Other regions are following. Why does the UK find it so hard to develop CCS? Last week the UK Energy Research Council produced a big report on the route to a demonstration of carbon capture and storage (coordinated by my Sussex colleague Jim Watson), informed by past experience of stimulating innovation in similar types of large scale energy engineering technology.
In theory, the UK has a great combination of factors for trialling CCS, including a good energy engineering skill base, an offshore oil industry, and most crucially, big depleted oil and gas fields near at hand. Few other European countries have all these together. Yet so far progress has been painfully slow.
It took the current and previous governments 5 years to put in place a competition for an end-to-end demo project that first attracted only one serious entrant and then had to be abandoned. A new start has now been made, but the UK ERC report argues that the way ahead will be difficult. Crucially, this kind of problem requires a different relationship between public and private sectors: Like this: MPs demand moratorium on Arctic oil drilling.
British MPs are calling on Shell and others to halt "reckless" oil and gas drilling in the Arctic until stronger safety measures are put in place.
Politicians also want to impose "unlimited" financial liability on operators and the creation of a "no-drill zone" in a new environmental sanctuary. The uncompromising demands have angered the energy industry but come just days after alarming new evidence has emerged about Arctic sea ice melting at record levels. They also come on the day that an environment committee of MEPs in Brussels called for tougher financial guarantees from oil companies to ensure they could pay for spills in European waters. Shell postpones plans to start Arctic drilling until next year. Environmental protesters blasted Shell on Monday after the energy giant abandoned controversial plans to start drilling for oil in the Arctic this year when a final test of its environmental protection equipment failed to meet the standards required to gain a full drilling permit.
The oil and gas group said a new type of "containment dome" – designed for use in the event of a leaking wellhead – had been damaged during testing. "During a final test, the containment dome aboard the Arctic Challenger barge was damaged," Shell told investors in an update on Monday morning. "It is clear that some days will be required to repair and fully assess dome readiness.
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