Climate change mitigation: What can we do to save the planet
Last week we took some deep dives into how the world has found itself in this Climate Change Puzzle.
We can recap that human activities and industrialisation have been key in increasing green-house gas emissions (GHG). These two factors have pushed energy demand to levels that our environmental resources used for power generation cannot cope without causing harm to the environment and consequently impacting negatively on climate.
We can also recap that the disproportionate allocation of greenhouse gas emissions across different economies, industrialists and wealthy individuals is a hot topic in Climate Change.
However, collectively, the world has to find a just transition that will benefit all economies whilst at the same time just to the rich and the poor!
We ended with a small introduction to Climate Change mitigation strategies. At the heart of this, are Carbon Mitigation Initiatives which seek to reduce the GHG emissions fairly across the divide. And remember, Climate change is one of the most complex issues facing us today. It involves many dimensions — science, economics, and society, and politics, moral and ethical questions!
Climate actions have often fallen into one of two strategies: mitigation efforts which focus on lowering or removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere, and adaptation efforts which focus on adjusting systems and societies to withstand the impacts of climate change.
Today we take a closer look at Climate Change Mitigation Strategies that we can employ to combat climate change. You will recall from the Wedges game that there are several wedges in the game that represent technologies which include: Efficiency, Fuel switching, Carbon Capture and storage, Nuclear energy, Wind, Solar, Biomass Fuel and Natural Sinks. These technologies are a summary of several and possible Climate Change Mitigation strategies that we will explore today.
Efficiency
The world needs to move towards fuel efficient vehicles and transport systems, for example improving fuel efficiency from 10km per litre to 15km per litre.
Architects also need to design more energy efficient and intelligent buildings. For example, Eastgate Building Complex in Harare Zimbabwe is considered one of the most energy efficient buildings in Africa and has won accolades because of its natural air-conditioning which greatly reduces energy consumption.
Some buildings have employed Energy Performance Contracts to make their buildings more energy efficient.
Energy Performance Contracts are contracts between project owners and Certified Energy Performance Contractors who can implement energy saving measures in buildings and projects.
They guarantee a certain amount of energy saving in a project. If this saving target is not achieved, they will compensate the project owners with the difference. There has also been advocacy for efficient baseload coal plants. Coal plants are limited by the laws of thermodynamics.
Only about 40 percent of the thermal energy in coal is converted to electricity. Improving the amount of energy generated per ton of coal burnt (or vice versa) will greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and save the planet!
Decarbonisation of Fuel and Power Generation
This strategy entails reducing emissions from power generation which contribute 40% of GHG emissions. This may entail converting coal fired plants to gas fired or combined cycle plants. Gas has less emissions compared to coal. As such emissions per megawatt of power produced will be reduced if we move towards gas fired power plants. Similarly, we can switch power generation technologies from coal to nuclear, wind and solar photovoltaic to achieve the desired impact in reducing GHG emissions.
We can also capture carbon emissions at power generation and Hydrogen Plants. Carbon captured
can either be stored or sequestrated (pumped and stored in the ground). This will prevent the carbon emissions from entering the atmosphere. Through industrialisation of carbon dioxide usage, we can commercialize industrial applications to include food and beverage production, metal fabrication, cooling, fire suppression, stimulating plant growth in greenhouses and urea fertilizer manufacturing.
Research is underway to find ways of extracting carbon dioxide straight from the atmosphere to completely deal with global warming. This requires a lot of funding and a global approach.
Conserving the Ecosystem
Conversion of natural vegetation to annually tilled cropland results in the loss, on average, of one third of the soil carbon if the land was formerly forested, and of one half of the soil carbon if the land was formerly in grassland or pasture (CMI Princetown).
In addition, soil management strategies that reduce escape of carbon dioxide from the oil to the atmosphere should be adopted.
Economies also need to reduce the intensity of food production, reduce food waste and loss and shift towards sustainable and healthy diets.
All this might globally reduce the carbon dioxide per year by 4 to 8 giga tones from now until 2050 at a relatively low cost
In an effort to conserve the ecosystem, some authorities have argued that giving land rights can greatly save the planet. It can be argued that when one owns and has land rights to a piece of land, they will tend to look after it well for generations to come and this is exactly what the world needs!
Carbon Foot Print and Reporting
A carbon footprint is the total greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions caused directly and indirectly by an individual, organisation, event or product. It is calculated by summing the emissions resulting from every stage of a product or services. There are several internationally agreed ways of measuring and reporting this footprint.
It can be argued that If individuals become aware of the damage they are causing to the climate, maybe they can work on efficient systems and processes to minimise the damage to the environment.
Next week we will take a deep dive into Carbon Footprint Reporting and how it can be used as a tool to save the planet…
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