100% Clean -- What does it mean? Avaaz is calling for our energy to be 100% clean by 2050. That means no new carbon is put into the air by the way we power our lives. Homes, transport, factories everything needs to be powered by clean, renewable energy. It is time to dream big. This undertaking is as huge as the human spirit. Our need for technological advances is matched by humanity’s ingenuity and inventiveness. We have mapped the human genome, put people on the moon, and created a world wide web that will soon connect everyone all in the span of years or decades. Why 100% clean? That’s what it takes to keep our climate safe. We need manmade carbon emissions to peak soon and get to zero by 2050 that is the only way to make sure we limit global warming to the maximum amount recommended by scientists: 2 degrees celsius. This is the same limit states have agreed to at the massive 2009 Copenhagen Climate summit. Yes. Some Scenarios show that we already have the technology to economically cut our emissions to zero for 90% of current sources of pollution . Experts have reviewed all our energy uses mapped out where we can make the changes. The first step is take advantage of the many ways to save energy energy efficiency is the most straightforward way to cut carbon, and there are also huge reductions to be made in the way we design and construct our buildings . The next step is to shift away from fossil fuels by radically increasing our use of renewable energy, especially wind and solar power. Sunshine and wind provide more than enough energy to meet our needs. But just because it is possible doesn’t mean it will happen. Total transformation of the way we power our lives needs all of us to do our bit locally, but it won’t happen unless world leaders commit to making “100% Clean” a reality. 2 What about the tough stuff like flying and farming? It can seem particularly hard to believe that we can cut our emissions for transport. On the ground, it is relatively simple we switch from oil to electricity for all of our cars, trucks, trains, and trams. There is enough energy from the sun and wind to run our roads and rails, and the trend towards electrification is already getting started. Indeed Stanford 1 ecofys/files/files/ecofys2013feasibilityghgphaseout2050.pdf 2 architecture2030.org/ Professor Mark Jacobson has outlined a vision to power the entire United States, including the transport sector, by 100% renewables by 2050 . Airplanes and cargo ships are harder to fuel via electricity, so biofuels are the best choice. But our current technology for biofuels isn’t low carbon. It takes land to grow these crops and there isn’t much spare land around unless you count the rainforests! So this is one area where we need to develop new technologies. Farming and other uses of land account for about a quarter of carbon pollution, and we definitely need to keep growing food. But again there are some smart ways to cut emissions, like stopping deforestation and replanting the forests we have lost. Other changes are less visible, such as managing crops and soil in ways that actually store carbon in soils or feeding livestock differently so farm animals emit less gas! What technology do we need to develop? A lot of the technology we need already exists, but there are still some holes. We need ● Better ways to store and transmit energy produced by renewables ● Replacements for industrial chemical processes that account for about 6% of global ● New options for low emission biofuels that don’t compete with food production, maybe ● Other options for planes and ships like fuel cells which use renewablyproduced hydrogen or methane This sounds like a daunting list, but remember we have 35 years to get. Think of all the technology we have now that didn’t exist 35 years ago: computers, the internet, smartphones, etc. If we put humanity’s best minds to the task, we will build these technologies and create more solutions we haven’t even thought of yet. Can we afford it? Going 100% clean is going to cost, but it is much, much cheaper than life in climate chaos. It is also going to bring some serious benefits. For example, it costs more to build a zero emissions building, but then it costs less to heat it. Social benefits, like making sure poor elderly people can afford to stay warm or significant improvements in air pollution, are part of Expert predictions for the cost of getting to 100% clean range from 15% of global GDP from now to 2050. If that sounds like a lot, the IMF calculated that governments spend a total of around 3% of global GDP on fossil fuels. These numbers only tell part of the story global averages hide the fact that those who will pay the highest costs will be those who have contributed the least to the problem. Poor island states that will be drowned, rural communities no longer able to scrape a living on marginal land, delta dwellers swept out to sea in hurricanes climate victims are not massive 3 news.stanford.edu/news/2014/february/fiftystatesrenewables022414.html The sooner we start the cheaper it will be. What will our lives look like? A lot like today. But oil spills and massive coal mines will be part of our past. Satellite images will show that rainforests are getting bigger. There are so many win/win ways we will improve our planet and our lives. Here are a few more examples: ● To achieve better energy efficiency we need long lasting and 100% recyclable products, which will reduce the amount of trash going to landfills. ● To cut “black carbon” soot that increases warming, poor families in developing countries must have access to better stoves, which will cut deaths from indoor pollution at the same time ● Using electricity to power cars and trucks instead of oil is essential to get to 100% clean, and will reduce urban air pollution at the same time. ● Reducing food waste reduces emissions and will help end the injustice lived by hundreds of millions of people who go to bed hungry every night. This is not a hairshirt vision of the future. Most scenarios assume that we will want more of things more meat for people who can’t currently afford it, more energy to power our lives, more of the things that make life good. Sounds great- are you sure we can get there? Yes. We have the technology we need and it is being used! But this isn’t just about technology it is about political will. Investing in our future is tough for politicians trained to look only to the next election cycle. But we are starting to see important signs of progress, check out these examples: ● 20% of electricity from renewable sources worldwide ● Some countries getting 5070% renewables in a single day (Portugal, Germany, etc...) ● Price parity with fossil fuels very close, years away ● 16 cities have 100% targets ● Colombia deforestation target of zero ● US coal plant regulations ● China carbon price testing ● Wind power cheapest electricity in Denmark
Posted on: Sun, 07 Dec 2014 17:26:57 +0000
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