Advances in battery technologyfor example, has reduced the price of electric vehicles, leading to increased acceptance among drivers. The cost of lithium-ion batteries, as well as wind and solar power, fell by as much as 85% between 2010 and 2019. In many cases, they are now cheaper than fossil fuel-based energy. This is helping industrialized nations, like the United States, really begin to reduce emissions. (The country is also burning more natural gas, which produces fewer emissions than coal but is still bad for the climate because it is a carbon-rich fuel.)
The world is getting warmer and the weather is getting worse. Here’s everything you need to know about what humans can do to prevent the planet from being destroyed.
The report also notes improvements in industry and manufacturing, such as advances in sensors, robotics and artificial intelligence that have fueled energy management. Heat pump, another mitigation technology listed in the report, could help reduce the energy needs of buildings – which are responsible for 40% of energy use in the US – because instead of relying on furnaces When they burn fuel, they exchange heat between indoors and outdoors. Since they operate entirely on electricity, they can be powered by solar panels on the roof.
So, in some ways, the energy future is looking bright. “In many areas, such as wind and solar, the technology exists to decarbonize, I would say 90% of the grid, pretty quickly,” said environmental economist Mark Paul of the University of New Florida. , who did not participate in the new IPCC report. That potential, he said, “come from investing money, but it also comes from regulations. We’ve seen many states have passed clean and renewable portfolio standards to essentially force utilities to decarbonise.”
Paul added that the price of solar has dropped 99% over the past few decades, so more and more people have access to this technology for their homes. (While the report notes that overall electric vehicle prices have fallen, it’s also true that sticker prices vary by region, and they’re still not affordable for many drivers.)
However, while a mixture of renewable or more energy-efficient technologies can help us decarbonise, they still represent only a small part of global energy generation. The report notes that by 2020, photovoltaic will only account for 3% of electricity produced worldwide, wind power about another 7%, and EVs only 1% of the global passenger vehicle fleet.
The report concludes that the key point is investment. While more money is being poured into climate mitigation, it’s not nearly enough. For Paul, it’s best to treat these expenses as seed money. “Contrary to the traditional narrative of economists, decarbonization will be experienced as an economic boom,” he said. “There is a lot of work to be done. But the real problem is that right now, we don’t necessarily have a trained workforce ready for things like retrofitting buildings. That’s the second bottom line, he said: Not enough people are willing to install technologies like solar panels and heat pumps, or retrofit buildings to make them more energy efficient. .
“Germany has pretty well-developed trade school programs, but here in the United States we have unfortunately invested in these industries,” says Paul. “Therefore, we have a real shortage of trained workers to help us decarbonize as quickly as possible, as we currently have. Of course, that problem can really be solved if the government invests in both creating these jobs and training workers.”
