“The Biggest Transformation in the Global Economy Since the Industrial Revolution”
With all the political craziness lately, it’s been easy to lose track of the bigger picture of the cleantech revolution to some extent. Clearly, in the US, there’s some big backwards movement on electric vehicles, solar power, and wind power. The Fossil Fuel Party is doing its thing and trying to dismantle everything Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Democrats accomplished from 2020–2024. But that doesn’t stop a global tech revolution from continuing on its path and even accelerating.
Editing David Waterworth’s article earlier today, I saw that Australia Treasurer Jim Chalmers believes the next 25 years will include “the biggest transformation in the global economy since the industrial revolution.” This is the cleantech revolution we’ve been writing about for 15 years. In that time, wind power has grown enormously, solar power has grown even more, and electric vehicles have gone from zero to hero. The revolution is well underway, but given how much has been accomplished and how much there is to write about, I think we sort of forget about what is to come.
So far, we’ve mostly seen new technologies rise up from almost nothing to significant markets. It’s fun, it’s interesting, it’s exciting, but the extent of the disruption has been minimal. Sure, the coal industry has declined a great deal and many coal companies have gone out of business. But the world is still heavily controlled by the oil & gas industry, and the traditional fossil-fueled auto industry is still heavily entrenched, making profits, and influencing politics in a major way. I don’t think this is how it’s going to go for the next 10+ years, and certainly not the next 25.
At some point, electric vehicles will lead us to a crossover point where oil companies start to struggle, oil nations struggle more, and traditional auto companies that have not done enough to transition quickly to electric vehicles fumble, crumble, and/or collapse.
We are going to witness an epic technology, energy, economic, and political transition. Well, we are starting to, but we are just at the rather early stages.
Naturally, there will be winners and losers. Leaders on cleantech — whether companies, countries, states, or people — will prosper and gain influence. Laggards will fall behind.
Regarding “the biggest transformation in the global economy since the industrial revolution,” Chalmers adds that “Australian energy can power it, Australian resources can build it, Australia’s regions can drive it, Australian researchers can shape it and Australian workers can thrive in it.” Oh my — that does make one miss smart, logical, level-headed political leaders. If only we could have such sensibility in the White House again. Well, we just had that, and we had great progress encouraging battery mineral mining, battery cell & pack production, and EV production in the US. But completely backwards thinking means that we’re probably going to have much of that stimulus and progress kneecapped and buried. But, overall, the world won’t. The world will move forward with this giant tech and energy transition. There is no good reason to slow down or try to stop it, and most of the world is not so controlled and stunted by the fossil fuel industry.
The biggest transformation in the global economy since the Industrial Revolution is underway, but the winners of the Industrial Revolution won’t necessarily be the winners of this one.
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