In the face of a global problem it can feel as if there is nothing we can do to stop these changes from occurring. Solutions help us feel that there is hope and possibility. Human innovation is endless, we have figured out how to solve monumental problems in the past and we can do it again...
Current Implementations
Fossil Fuels As Primary Energy Source
- Problem:
- The International Monetary Fund estimates that the fossil-fuel industry received more than $5.3 trillion worldwide in direct and indirect subsidies in 2015. In comparison, the US wind-energy industry has received $12.3 billion in direct subsidies since 2000.
- The electricity generation sector is responsible for 28% of the emission generation in the United States
- Current Solutions:
- Estimates from The International Monetary Fund found that the fossil-fuel industry received upwards of $5.3 trillion worldwide subsidies, both direct and indirect 2015 alone. In contrast, the United States wind-energy industry has been given only $12.3 billion in direct subsidies since 2000.
- Wind farms continue to be built all around the world, despite these subsidies
- Wind is comparable or less expensive than energy from coal
- Even with fossil fuel prices dropping, 63 gigawatts of power were installed worldwide in 2015 alone
- Wind is comparable or less expensive than energy from coal
- It is scalable
- If Kansas, North Dakota and Texas converted to wind energy, the power generated from those three states could power the entire United States
- Making power grids able to share energy would fix our problems
- It will soon be the cheapest form of energy to install
- If Kansas, North Dakota and Texas converted to wind energy, the power generated from those three states could power the entire United States
- Deepwater Wind’s Block Island Wind Farm went online in 2016, providing reliable electricity to the people of Block Island, RI for the first time. This project along supplies power to 17,000 homes, reduced electricity costs and these new structures have already been seen to be functioning as artificial reefs
- Offshore wind has an array of benefits
- Oceanic winds are strongest in the afternoons, which coincided with the highest use and therefore demand of electricity daily
- Due to higher and more consistent winds, offshore wind has the capacity to produce more energy than onshore wind (1).
- Emit zero emissions
- Wind Energy avoided 198 million tons of CO2 in 2019 (2).
- Saves on water consumption
- Wind energy saves 103 billion gallons of water consumption each year (2).
- Oceanic winds are strongest in the afternoons, which coincided with the highest use and therefore demand of electricity daily
- Former coal plants are being turned into solar farms in the UK that will be capable of producing a combined 30 MW between Nottinghamshire and South Yorkshire (3).
- India is fitting many of its canals, covering 1,000’s of miles with solar panels that will produce 2.2 GW of emission free energy in order to avoid encroaching on existing land used by humans and animals (3).
- Over its lifecycle, solar produces less greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) compared to conventional energy from fossil fuels (4).
- What’s more, heating and cooling systems powered by solar can supply about 80% of necessary energy for space heating and water heating needs (4).
- “According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the average home with solar panels in Connecticut uses 8,288 kilowatt-hours (kWh) of electricity per year. Switching from fossil fuels to solar power in the state has the same emissions reduction effect as planting around 150 trees every year" (5).
- Responsible for an annual reduction of global CO2 emissions by 2.8 billion tons alone (6)
- The Trung Son Hydropower Plant in Vietnam, placed along the Ma River has shown recent success with an energy capacity of 260 MW and a yearly output of 1,019 million kWh. This new plant will provide power to 180,000 homes and will avoid about a million tons of carbon output annually (6).
- The Itaipu Hydroelectric Dam located along the border of Brazil and Paraguay exemplifies how partnership between private entities and nations can create successful renewable energy initiatives (7).
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Carbon Sequestration
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Refrigerant (HFC) Managements
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Plant Rich Diet
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Food Waste
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- Protecting coastal wetlands
- Help to absorb the energy of storm surges, limit erosion and act as nurseries for an array of oceanic species (8).
- Fostering seagrass beds
- Seagrass beds act as carbon sinks as through photosynthesis, they store carbon beneath the ground
- In fact, according to the UN Environment Program, “seagrass accounts for 10 per cent of the ocean’s capacity to store carbon … despite occupying only 0.2 per cent of the sea floor, and it can capture carbon from the atmosphere up to 35 times faster than tropical rainforests" (9).
- They also help to maintain reduce ocean acidification by maintaining a relatively stable pH and temperature in their surrounding waters, helping fight against coral bleaching (10).
- Protecting Mangrove Forests
- Mangroves work to reduce inland damage from hurricanes and tsunamis as well as protect against erosion through the stabilizing effect of their roots in the soil (11).
- In terms of carbon sequestration, mangroves are capable of storing four times more carbon than an equivalent area of rainforest can (12).
- Restoring Salt-marshes
- The United States has lost more than half of its historic tidal wetlands (13)
- Saltwater marshes in good condition store more carbon per hectare than any other ecosystem on planet Earth (13)
- When these marshes are cut off from saltwater through road construction and human intervention, they begin to release methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. However, restoration of tidal flows to these areas reduces methane reduction and converts these systems back to carbon sinks (13)
- Reducing deforestation
- According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, “when trees are cut down and burned or allowed to rot, their stored carbon is released into the air as carbon dioxide. According to the best current estimate, deforestation is responsible for about 10 percent of all global warming emissions.”
- What’s more, 32 million acres of were cut down per year between 2000 and 2009 (14).
- And the emissions generated from cutting down and burning trees is equivalent to that of all vehicle emissions across the globe (15).
- However, four industries are primarily responsible for global deforestation: palm oil, wood products, beef and soybeans (16).
- A new policy initiative poineered by the Environmental Defense Fund to Reduce Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+) is paving the way towards protecting forests to fight climate change (17).
- These policies provide economic incentives for combating deforestation, which fills in the losses incurred as a result
- Problem:
- Common refrigerator chemicals have detrimental effects on the environment
- Derived chemicals led to depletion of the ozone layer
- Chloroflouro carbons (CFC’s) and Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFC’s) are used as coolant chemicals in refrigerators
- They seep out and end up in the environment
- Reduce ozone (O3) and break down the natural protection from the sun’s rays
- Phased out by the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, CFCs and HCFCs have been phased out of use
- Replacement → Hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s)
- Had the exact same problem
- “Minimal effects on the ozone layer, but their capacity to warm the atmosphere is 1,000 to 9,000 times greater than that of carbon dioxide, depending on their exact chemical composition.”
- Derived chemicals led to depletion of the ozone layer
- Common refrigerator chemicals have detrimental effects on the environment
- Solutions
- Deal made in Kagali, Rwanda
- “Through an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the world will begin phasing HFCs out of use, starting with high-income countries in 2019 and then expanding to low-income countries—some in 2024, others in 2028.”
- “HFC substitutes are already on the market, including natural refrigerants such as propane and ammonia”
- Unlike the Paris Agreement, the Kagali Accord is mandatory
- 90% of emissions release comes with disposal
- Repurposing and recycling the coolants or transforming them into chemicals that do not cause cooling is needed
- Deal made in Kagali, Rwanda
- Problems
- 15 percent of global greenhouse emissions can be attributed to raising livestock by the most conservative estimates, the most comprehensive assessments that incorporate direct and indirect emissions estimate that it's more than 50 percent.
- For CO2 emissions alone, animal agriculture accounts for 9% of the total as a consequence of transport of feed and animals as well as fertilizer production and changes in the use of land (18).
- In fact, the burning of fossil fuels needed simply to produce fertilizer for animal feed results in about 41 million metric tons of CO2 annually (19).
- In order to process 1kg of beef, 4.27 megajoules of energy are needed, which is equivalent to 36.4 kg of CO2, multiply that by the 52 billion pounds of beef produced in 2017, that’s 222 billion megajoules or 1.9 trillion kg of CO2 in a single year (20).
- Given this relatively simple math, it is easy to see how changing to a plant-based or plant rich diet can significantly contribute to a reduced carbon footprint
- If the entire globe adopted vegetarian lifestyle, food related emissions would be reduced by 60%, if everyone went vegan, they would drop by 70% (21).
- Problem
- We waste 4.4 gigatons of CO2-equivalent worth of food each year, which accounts for ~8% of anthropogenic greenhouse emissions
- ~133 billion pounds of food grown by farmers never makes it to our plates, enough to completely fill 44 skyscrapers (22).
- Literal tonnes of it end up in landfill, where as it breaks down, it emits methane, a troublesome greenhouse gas.
- It's based in the system which contributes to
- Poor refrigeration and storage, unmaintained roads, fight against heat and humidity in transport
- Food is lost before it gets to the consumer
- Economics also play a role
- If a crop is not profitable, it won’t be harvested
- If it's too expensive, people won’t buy it
- People don’t like imperfect produce, so some is never bought
- We waste 4.4 gigatons of CO2-equivalent worth of food each year, which accounts for ~8% of anthropogenic greenhouse emissions
- Solutions:
- Improving packaging, storage and refrigeration is key to reducing food waste (23)
- The SolarChill Project is currently using solar powered fridges to store vaccines at a safe temperature, but this technology could be used in the storage and transport of perishable goods (24).
- Evaporative coolers are also an innovative solution. By simply pouring cool, wet sand in the gap between two nested pots, the internal temperature can be cooled by up to 20ºC (25).
- Purdue Innovative Crop Storage (PICS) is another current solution to the problem. These new storage bags implement a triple seal and are hermetic, which means that bugs that enter the bad run out of oxygen before they reach any of the goods inside (26).
- Changing Consumer Behavior
- Raised awareness by the “Love Food, Hate Waste” network in the U.K. was shown to be effective, reducing household food waste by 20 percent from 2007 to 2012 (27).
- H.R. 3981, a bill introduced in the house aims to reduce food waste by altering and standardizing the “sell by” label into a “best if used by” and a “use by” label. This will help people from throwing out food that is still completely safe to eat due to misleading packaging (28).
- Improving packaging, storage and refrigeration is key to reducing food waste (23)
The next 15 years will be critical, as the global economy undergoes a deep structural transformation. It will not be “business as usual”. The global economy will grow by more than half, a billion more people will come to live in cities, and rapid technological advance will continue to change businesses and lives” (29).
Future Implementations
- Problem
- Global Alliance for Buildings and Construction specifies that buildings alone are responsible for a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions. That number increases with the inclusion of transportation and other infrastructure that comes along with the functioning of these buildings (30).
- “Around US$90 trillion is likely to be invested in infrastructure in the world’s urban, land use and energy systems. How these changes are managed will shape future patterns of growth, productivity and living standards" (31).
- It is essential the low carbon infrastructure gains key investments, however modern economies are failing in the mobilization of adequate monetary funds to meet these needs
- Carbon-intensive infrastructure is responsible for nearly 70% of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG’s) globally (32).
- Unless future infrastructure is molded with sustainability in mind, which included investments in energy efficiency in buildings, successful mass transit systems and energy from low carbon sources, the world will put itself on a path of high carbon output and warming nearing 2-3ºC (33).
- It essential that developing countries lead this infrastructure transition if they hope to mitigate their current carbon output
- Solution
- Global Problems Require Global Efforts
- Global collaboration is absolutely essential if we are to both sustain the global economy and invest in sustainable infrastructure that supports a low carbon future.
- Multilateral Development Banks (MDBs), are international financial institutions that two or more countries agree to charter in order to assist in the development of countries with lower GDP’s
- It will be necessary that MDB’s are utilized in increasing their lending efforts towards infrastructure development in the next ten years “from around $30-40 billion per year to over $200 billion, in order to help meet overall infrastructure financing requirements" (33).
- This investment will allow developing nations to take on the financial burden that is associated with investing in low carbon infrastructure technologies.
- Actions and Strategies
- Build future cities compactly both in the size of the buildings and the distance between
- Urban Land Institute in conjunction with the EPA recently published findings that dense development strategies could result in a 20-40% decrease in vehicle miles traveled in contrast to contemporary strategies (34).
- This could subsequently result in a 7-10% reduction of emitted CO2 by 2050 (34).
- A follow up study by the same institute discovered that investment in energy efficient transit options in conjunction with the above strategy could result in a 9-15% reductions in GHG’s by 2050 (35).
- Protecting green space within urban areas.
- Reusing existing infrastructure and buildings rather than constructing new structures to reduce emission output in the process (36).
- Create close knit communities where stores, schools, homes and business centers are within a close vicinity (36).
- If new building are constructed:
- Water and electricity use must be of primary importance in planning
- Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) currently has standards set out for creating energy efficient structures for the future (37).
- Water and electricity use must be of primary importance in planning
- Build future cities compactly both in the size of the buildings and the distance between
- Global Problems Require Global Efforts
- Problem
- Lithium ion batteries are the current leading technology, but these batteries have a certain limit in their capacity that must be improve if it is to keep up with future demands
- Scientists, engineers and innovators are turning towards other technologies in search of a battery that can store more energy for a longer period of time
- Solution
- With the growth of renewable energy through wind, solar, hydro and other breakthrough technologies, the need to store energy is more important than ever before
- Battery costs have seen a decline of 70% since 2013 and are expected to maintain a rate of 8% reduction until 2025 (39).
- New investments are expected to total $620 billion by 2040, and market growth by a factor of 9 between 2017 and 2022 (40).
- And it is only expected to get cheaper
- Current investments planned out until 2023 total $150 billion U.S. dollars and costs between 2018 and 2023 are expected to be halved (41).
- And more efficient
- Next Generation Lithium Ion Battery
- Lithium Sulfur Battery
- Solid State Battery
- Replaces liquid solvent that energy can flow through to a solid solvent, this allows high conductivity with minimal energy lost (42).
- These batteries are non-flammable at high temperatures, which liquid state batteries are not (42).
- They are also lighter, have higher energy density and a longer shelf life (42).
- Ideal for vehicles as they are super light for the amount of energy capacity and output that they exhibit (42).
Carbon Capture
- Problem
- We are rapidly approaching the point where simply stopping all burning of fossil fuels is not enough if we hope to limit severe climate change. We must therefore work to take carbon out of the atmosphere retroactively and proactively.
- According to NOAA, “The global average atmospheric carbon dioxide in 2019 was 409.8 parts per million (ppm for short), with a range of uncertainty of plus or minus 0.1 ppm. Carbon dioxide levels today are higher than at any point in at least the past 800,000 years” (43).
- This trajectory is not expected to slow without drastic action, and carbon capture could be one method to slow this curve
- Solution
- Carbon capture is the process by which carbon in the form of CO2 is removed from the atmosphere through creating a chemical reaction in which the density of CO2 inside a chamber containing a solvent is higher outside than inside
- Air is pulled into these chambers and CO2 is captured and trapped through diffusion into these solvents, effectively removing it from the atmosphere
- Transborders Energy, based in Perth Australia is leading this charge
- They plan to set up a floating facility that will capture CO2 from the atmosphere and as a result of natural gas production and store it beneath the sea floor (44).
- More investment is to come, but this technology will be essential in reducing atmospheric CO2 concentrations as the world transitions away from coal and oil and towards renewable energy solutions
- Offshore Wind Potential
- Power potential of 2,000 gigawatts, which is roughly twice the amount of energy that currently being used within the United States
- Building and maintaining this new infrastructure has the possibility of creating 83,000 jobs by 2030
- Many of the skills and experience that workers in oil and gas have working on ocean energy infrastructure will be needed in this up and coming industry, making the transition easy.
- Converting Food Waste Into Energy
- AuRes System is a material made from food waste that absorbs high energy particles like ultraviolet or gamma rays from its surroundings, which can then be converted into electricity
- Bioluminescent particles are extracted and derived from waste agriculture crops by crushing them and distilling the juices for these particulates
- Electro-Active Technologies submitted a patent for a facility that would convert food waste into hydrogen gas that could be burned to generate energy (45).
- AuRes System is a material made from food waste that absorbs high energy particles like ultraviolet or gamma rays from its surroundings, which can then be converted into electricity
Want to Learn More?
Learn about your own carbon footprint!
Check out our Made Simple Tab for useful eco-friendly lifestyle tips!
- This term refers to the amount of carbon being emitted by a person, an activity, or an organization.
- Your lifestyle decisions have a direct impact on your carbon footprint.
- Once you have an idea about the activities that impact your carbon footprint, you can make lifestyle changes, whether big or small, to help decrease the amount of carbon that is emitted into the atmosphere.
- These lifestyle decisions can and should be made on both the individual and organizational levels.
- Carbon Footprint Calculator
- Ecological Footprint calculator
- Look into where your energy comes from.
- Locally, Puget Sound Energy allows their customers to choose where their electricity comes from as well as a carbon offset program for their gas. They provide many package options which allow for flexibility for each customer as well as helping the health of the planet! See if your energy provided has any similar programs.
Check out our Made Simple Tab for useful eco-friendly lifestyle tips!