<
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2023/11/climate-change-policies-contradictions/675967/>
"You’d be forgiven for thinking that the fight against climate change is
finally going well. The clean-energy revolution is well under way and exceeding
expectations. Solar is set to become the cheapest form of energy in most places
by 2030, and the remarkable efficiency of heat pumps is driving their own
uptake now. Sales of electric vehicles could surpass those of gas-burning cars
in the next six years. The world’s biggest powers are putting huge sums toward
infrastructure to usher in some form of energy transformation. Pledges are
being made; legislation is being passed. The world, it seems, is finally
lurching in the right direction.
But none of that is enough, practically speaking, because of one enormous
hitch: The world is still using more energy each year, our consumption ticking
ever upward, swallowing any gains made by renewable energy. Emissions are still
rising—more slowly than they used to but, nonetheless, rising. Instead of
getting pushed down, that needle is fitfully jiggling above zero, clawing into
the positive digits when it needs to be deeply pitched into the negative. We
are, in other words, simply not making a dent.
And so we are now in climate purgatory. In this zone, countries and companies
are doing the right things to steer away from the damages of climate change,
but are at the very same time making deliberate choices that swamp the effect
of those other, better things. The International Energy Agency predicts that
demand for fossil fuels will peak by 2030. Yet a report released by the United
Nations and several climate organizations this week found that governments in
aggregate still plan to increase coal production until 2030, and oil and gas
production until at least 2050, global net-zero agreements be damned. In total,
countries that hold the world’s oil, gas, and coal deposits still plan to
produce 69 percent more fossil fuels than is compatible with keeping warming
under 2 degrees Celsius, the riskier cousin to the 1.5-degree-Celsius goal each
of those countries pledged to aim for. Many experts now consider that goal
impossible, because of global reluctance to phase out fossil fuels. One expert
who worked on the UN report called this “insanity,” a “climate disaster of our
own making.” The climate math is not adding up."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
