An oil shock would benefit the Walloon cities
Thursday, April 28, 2011 at 1:37 p.m.
A year of economic growth: that is what cost the Wallonia an oil shock in 2025. Most rural municipalities are the most affected. Cities, they could enjoy a reversal of the urban exodus.
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An oil shock that would double the price per barrel would result in the Walloon Region, through a reduction in GDP of 2.2% after 10 years. This would amount to lose, spread over a decade, a year of economic growth, according to figures from the Office of plan submitted as part of a symposium organized by the Walloon Parliament Tuesday to the committee "peak oil and gas."
This symposium, devoted to the particular role of research in mitigating the effects of peak oil, preceded by one day the world congress of the Association for the Study of the Peak Oil (ASPO), held this year from 27 April 29 in Belgium.
This is particularly emerged an oil shock in 2025 would affect in particular the more rural municipalities, whose assets would be wiped out by rising fuel prices. Cities, they offer more resistance to higher energy prices and could see tipping in their favor the urban exodus began here half a century, according to research by six scholars and published by the Standing Conference territorial development in the Walloon Region (CPDT).
In the longer term, cutting travel between places of residence and work should be promoted. Including through tax measures to significantly reduce oil consumption.
Finally, both short and longer term, "the movement of dispersed settlement should be reversed as and when oil prices increase, which may occur gradually or more brutal," conclude researchers planning in the wake "major upheavals in the use of space."