The challenge of net-zero emissions in our civilization wired to emit greenhouse gases!
Getting to near zero emissions would be extremely difficult and requires far-reaching changes including change in government policies, new technologies, changes to the way we make things, the way we generate and distribute electricity, the way we grow the food we eat and the way we move about. Therefore, countries, industries and companies that build net-zero products/services/portfolios would lead the global economy in the next decades.
All activities of modern life-transportation, electricity generation and distribution, manufacturing and agriculture, add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere and annually, these activities add an average of around 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and this has to be reduced to near zero as a starting point, as the effect of the resulting global warming is already being experienced.
As Bill Gates pointed out in his book, “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster: The Solutions We Have and the Breakthroughs We Need”, the climate is like a giant bathtub that we are continually filling up with water. Therefore, even though we slow the rate of filling it up, it would eventually fill up and spill on to the floor. This means that, what we need is not some piecemeal lifestyle changes, but a substantial reduction in the activities, products and current solutions that lead to a continuous increasing emission of greenhouse gases
We should aim at net-zero reduction in emissions-at the same time, pumping out or withdrawing the greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, as some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, stay up in the atmosphere for hundreds and thousands of years. Shocking, isn’t it?
Why do greenhouse gas emissions matter?
Human activities and associated emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are the sole driver of the changing climate. The red line in the chart in figure 1 below represent the average annual temperature trend through time with the upper and lower confidence intervals shown in grey. This trend would continue upward unless we act
The greenhouse gases, once in the atmosphere, trap heat that leads to global warming with its devastating effects such as flooding, draught, forest fires, deforestation and killing of wildlife, extra heat also kill animals and humans etc (see figures 2-5)
Fig 1: Average global temperature change between 1850-2019 (Credit: ourworldindata.org)
Global average temperatures have increased by more than 1℃ since pre-industrial times.
Figure 2: A typical flooded neighbour-a direct effect of global warming (Credit: worldwidelife.org)
Fig 3: Wildfires kill both plants and animals, exposing the soil to degrade and further release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere (Credit: britannica.com)
Fig 4: Melting ice sheets destroy animal habitats and lead to abnormal rise in sea levels that leads to further distortion of the carbon cycle-flooding of adjoining rivers and associated flood plains also lead to further release of methane, a greenhouse gas into the atmosphere. (Credit: nationalgeographic.org)
Fig 5: Above: A dam floods in China leading to disruption in energy supply and damage to infrastructure (Credit: mhnews.com). Below : Part of a road is washed away by flood(Credit: nature.com). All these are effects of global warming as temperatures rise due to the trapping of heat by greenhouse gases.
Where does the emissions come from?
As I stated above, greenhouse gases-carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and fluorinated gases are released due to human activities.
The table below shows that majority of the emissions come from how we make things, how we generate and use electricity, how we grow food and rear animals for food and how we get around from one place to another. Keeping warm and cool also contributes to global warming
Category of Human Activity / Emission Percentage
Making things (fertilizers, steel, plastic etc) / 31%
Electricity generation and distribution / 27%
Growing things and rearing animals for food / 19%
Getting around from one place to another / 16%
Keeping warm and cool / 7%
Total / 100%
It is expedient to point out that in a majority of these activities, fossil fuel is used as the base fuel , either in electricity generation where it accounts for more than two-third of the source of electricity generation worldwide, in making steel where coke (fossil fuel) and electricity generated through burning fuels is used. Fossil fuel is also used in keeping warm, where natural gas is used for heating or electricity generated from fossil fuels is used to power air-conditioners etc.
In addition, current infrastructure has taken us decades to build and would not just be discarded and new ones-built over-night. It is going to take time.
Far-reaching changes including change in government policies, new technologies, changes to the way we make things, the way we generate and distribute electricity, the way we grow the food we eat and the way we move about are now required.
Therefore, countries, industries and companies that build net-zero portfolios would lead the global economy in the next decades.
We are currently wired to consume oil and gas because it is cheap, and the infrastructure have been built for decades-but there are consequences for this reliance on oil and gas. The energy market alone is a $5 trillion market. We need to do things differently. We do not need to adapt but to apply holistic measures to remove existing carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the atmosphere-and stop entirely from pumping more into the atmosphere. If we don’t , the result may be catastrophic!
We are open to further conversation around Energy Transition, building technologies that would drastically reduce greenhouse emissions and creation of investment portfolios of companies that are conscious of the effect of climate change and prepared to make chances towards carbon neutrality.
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