The Kyoto Protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) was developed to provide financial incentive to induce the poorer nations to go green. The environmental benefits of going green have long been touted. Similarly the concomitant economic costs of switching over from a business-as-usual scenario have also long been known.
But in a recent lecture, Vinod Khosla, the venture capitalist with a strong interest in environmental startups, did an actual cost-accounting of various green technologies. "A Prius might save you, depending on your calculations, a half a ton to two tons of carbon a year", said Khosla, " but just painting your (home's) roof white saves you 10 tons of CO2. That's good economics. Instead of spending $5,000 extra for that Prius, you could spend a few hundred dollars to replace the light bulbs in your house with more efficient ones and save a lot more carbon."
He also described a 3-year pilot project in Oakland, CA, involving zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell busses saying it cost $1.61 per mile to operate a diesel vehicle, but more than 30 times that amount—$51.66 per mile—to run a zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell bus.
He also presented data showing that while the all-electric powered GM Volt, expected to be sold starting in 2010, would emit 144 grams of carbon dioxide per mile, the vehicle would also cost a hefty $623 a month to drive and much of the electricity required to power the car would be created by burning coal.
Thus, for green technologies to gain wide acceptance it is necessary that they remain cost-effective. They will not achieve popularity and replace fossil fuel based technologies unless they attain economic viability especially over the cheaper and easily available fossil fuel based mainstream technologies.
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