How do we get to net zero emissions?
For the next century, the question will define the global economy. We need to invest at least $1.6 trillion per year through the year 2050 to put the planet on a safe climate trajectory according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. We are spending 20% of that figure today. The climate economy means that almost every aspect of our global system needs to be rethought to reduce and then remove greenhouse gases. It is the greatest challenge and opportunity of our time.
The last safe atmospheric CO2 concentrations were recorded in 1990.
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations in November 2020 are 414 parts per million.
Natural disasters caused $68 billion in the first half of 2020.
1.7 is the number of Earths it takes to sustain today's global level of consumption of natural capital.
The price of a barrel of West Texas Intermediate oil is the US benchmark. The price has been stuck around 40 for months after crashing below zero early in the Pandemic and starting the year around $60. The key to the global energy market is this number, which determines which oil patches can be profitably drilled by which companies. Fossil fortunes are made or broken by the ability of CEOs to predict this price and shuffle assets and investments accordingly, and its current level puts US producers at a serious disadvantage to their Middle East rivals.
The world's engine is powered by fossil fuels. It adds carbon to the atmosphere. We will have to rethink every aspect of the economy to keep it from overheating. It's cheaper to keep some fossil fuels running and store carbon emissions. The next Industrial Revolution will be powered by many different fuels than the last one.
“I’m convinced we will deal with the problem. [But] not before there is an amount of suffering that is unconscionable and should’ve been avoided.” —climate scientist Michael Oppenheimer, who testified at a seminal 1988 Congressional hearing about global warming
The short answer is that only a small percentage of what people throw in recycling bins actually gets recycled.
China and other southeast Asian countries that used to handle large volumes of recycled stuff from the US recently got fed up and shut their doors. A large volume of what people try to recycle is not actually recycled because it is the wrong material or is contaminated. The oil industry has spent years pushing recycling as an excuse to make more of it, because there is too much plastic. To begin with, use less plastic. Government and corporate procurement rules can help boost the domestic processing industry by requiring it in purchased products.
You have never heard of Mary Nichols, the world's most powerful environmental regulator. The chair of the California Air Resources Board is a lawyer. She has influenced climate policy in more than a dozen US states that have adopted California's strict vehicle emission standards, which go beyond federal requirements. China has modeled its carbon-trading scheme on California.
In the US, weed cultivation uses more electricity than all electric vehicles put together. Despite rapid growth in EV adoption, it will continue until at least 2030. The two sectors, along with data centers, are expected to be the largest drivers of electricity demand growth over the next decade.
Adam Smith knew that nature was the source of prosperity. The services nature provides are worth more than $150 trillion a year. We have overdrawn nature's bank account. Human consumption surpassed Earth's capacity to regenerate resources in 1970. We're running a deep deficit because we deplete the principal. Natural capital is at the center of a global movement to expand economics to include ecology. Our GDP will never be the same.
Fighting climate change will require a lot of changes in the energy system, as well as the housing and insurance markets, and other parts of the economy that are hard for an individual to influence. It doesn't hurt to curb your carbon footprint.
If you want to try something more ambitious, you can use this tool from the corporate accountability nonprofit As You Sow to get rid of your retirement or mutual funds from fossil fuels.
Almost all of the commercial ships in the world burn carbon-emitting marine fuel oil.
The shipping industry uses 4.5 million barrels of fossil fuels per day.
There will be 3 million electric vehicle sales in 2020.
Each year, Maersk will need 450,000 metric tons of green fuel.
Satellites could see port traffic jams because of the supply chain crunch. A time lapse video of ships stuck waiting outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach was compiled from a series of satellite images.
The cost to decarbonize global shipping over the next 20 to 30 years is over $1 trillion. The industry is far behind doing its part to meet the Paris Agreement's goal to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, but in recent years retailers and shipping lines have begun making public pledges to decarbonize freight.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
