How to prevent a Climate Emergency?
Global Warming and Climate Change are two terms that often take the limelight. You may be aware of the UN body IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) report which stated that we must prevent global temperature increases over 1.5 °C of pre-industrial levels to avoid severe climatic disruptions.
But…How did we get to this point?
Well, there are a host of factors but the main one is the abusive consumption of fossil fuels which emits greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon-di-oxide which stores heat within them. An increase in the concentration of such gases leads to the heating of our atmosphere and, consequently, an increase in the global average temperature.
Now, the IPCC report also states a very clear point. In order to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5 °C, we must achieve net carbon zero emissions by 2050.
But what I wish to declutter here is to find out what sectors contribute to Global Warming the most and layout the methods by which we can achieve the optimistic target of hitting ‘Carbon Zero’ by 2050, thus eliminating the effect of carbon-dioxide emissions altogether.
The data mentioned in this article are primarily sourced from the book “How to get to Carbon Zero” by Bianca Nogrady, who has done a splendid job of laying out the path to achieving Carbon Zero!
Well, to start off, here is a split-up of the breakup of Greenhouse Gas Emissions by sector.
Industry
The manufacturing industry sector accounts for 23% of the global carbon emissions with Steel, Iron, and Concrete productions being the primary offenders. These metals require temperatures over 1000 °C during manufacture, which only fossil fuels can generate. However, of late, there have been some efforts to use renewable sources by concentrating the heat from the Sun, but this method hasn’t achieved the optimal temperature ranges consistently. The US company Heliogen is currently working on using smaller and more agile mirrors to get the job done.
Two of the largest aluminum producers Alcoa and Rio Tinto have partnered up with Apple to develop a carbon-free smelting process that would generate oxygen instead of carbon-di-oxide. Apart from manufacturers, we also find Big Tech adopting sustainable methods on a large scale. For instance, the data centers that store these companies’ servers generate up to 45% of emissions in the industry. They are expected to achieve 100% renewable power by 2050.
Transport
Transport accounts for 29% of the total emissions within which road transportation makes up 77%, followed by shipping (11%) and Aviation (10%). Naturally, the main source of emissions here is Oil, on which we are heavily dependent. There are two leading solutions to replacing Oil, i.e. Electric and Hydrogen-powered vehicles.
The production of EVs rose by 40% year on year in 2021, and there are now over 7.2 million EVs on Earth. However, hydrogen vehicle development is still in the nascent stage, with Hyundai being the leading manufacturer. Once the cost of maintaining a hydrogen car comes down significantly, they could be a worthy rival to EVs.
Aviation is a more significant challenge due to cost and weight issues. The industry runs on wafer-thin profit margins, and the adoption of alternative fuels would be loss-making today. Electric planes are currently unfeasible as the weight-to-energy ratio of Lithium-Ion batteries is much higher than Oil. Therefore, E-Planes seem like a concept only for short-haul flights for now.
When it comes to shipping, the solutions are more feasible at present. Current methods to reduce emissions include the usage of methanol as the fuel (reduces emissions by 20%) and the use of hydrogen-powered cells.
Food
The Food production industry is responsible for about 26% of the greenhouse gas production. This sector is growing at a rapid rate with food consumption estimated to grow by 50% by 2050. One of the reasons for this level of emissions in the sector is the type of diet we follow. Producing a single KG of Beef generates about 100 Kgs of C02 emission, more than double the 2nd highest product, mutton (24 Kg CO2). Therefore, the best way to reduce the emission in this industry is to bring about a behavioral change in people to switch to vegetarian or low meat diets. This shift would reduce the land used for food production by 74% and emissions by 49%. The growth of the alternate meat industry is also a sign that such shifts in diet are indeed possible.
Waste
So far, we have mostly talked about advancements in technology to reduce emissions. However, another side of the challenge is to tackle the billions of tonnes of waste that we generate (2 billion per year). Food waste accounts for about 8% of the total greenhouse emissions. These emissions arise from the processes that are used to make the food. The natural way to tackle this is to reduce wastage by ensuring better storage and packaging. Like food, fashion waste has also grown exponentially in the past few years, mainly due to the rise of consumerism and fast fashion. The product life of fashion products has also reduced, resulting in the accumulation of fashion waste. We need to tackle this by not just using lesser clothes per household but by also buying from brands whose processes are more sustainable.
If you’d like to know more about the fast fashion industry, here’s an article I had written on it.
Carbon Capture
Up to this point, we have mainly talked about reducing carbon emissions in different sectors. However, unless we develop net negative carbon emission processes, we will technically never attain ‘Carbon Zero.’ Planting more trees or afforestation is one way to get there. However, the availability of land in large quantities could limit the effectiveness of this approach. Therefore, to achieve ‘true’ carbon zero, we need to develop carbon capture technologies.
Scientists are currently experimenting with a process that generates wind at high speeds in a tight space and mixes the carbon dioxide particles with potassium hydroxide resulting in a solid substance. This would then be buried under soils rich in magnesium which would absorb the carbon dioxide. Climeworks and Carbon Engineering are two companies that do this currently.
Climate Change has been a burning issue for the entire planet for the past few decades. We need to act swiftly to achieve the ‘Carbon Zero’ milestone soon to ensure that we don’t lose our beautiful planet. Behavioral changes and technological innovations have always been a way for us to bring about revolutionary changes. We have the technology. All we need is the right approach and mindset!
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I write articles every week focussing on political, social, and cultural topics giving you an in-depth and decluttered view of each one.
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