Learn about the connection between energy use and climate change.
Then find out what you can do about it
Nearly 75% of GHG emissions come from burning fossil fuels for energy!
The government’s stated net zero Carbon ambitions and other related policies are of course welcome. We do not, however, think these are coherent or well thought through at this stage. In particular, we do not think there is an energy or Carbon strategy to get us to net zero, even by as late as 2050.
We believe a more coherent approach to decarbonising everything would be to follow one of the widely accepted Energy Hierarchies. These hierarchies can differ slightly in their steps, but all start with reducing energy consumption as the most important and effective. Technological solutions on their own, whether in improved efficiencies or more renewables, will neither reduce GHG emissions enough nor can they do it quickly enough.
Nevertheless, we will need the technological solutions to complete the task. Even if we were to make significant inroads into reducing our energy consumption, it would be impossible to reduce this to zero. Therefore, technological solutions will be needed to make sure the remaining energy we use has low enough GHG emission that the natural environment is able to absorb (sequester).
With current trends, we will have emitted enough GHG within 5 years to exceed the Paris Accord’s limits. To stay close to the 1.5OC temperature rise limit, we will need to get to net zero GHG emissions by 2030. See our 2019 report to the council and the latest explanation of what is causing the climate transformation, what it’s consequences are likely to be and what needs to happen to mitigate this.
There are a lot of conflicting reports on the next new technology that will ‘solve the problem’. We do not think there is a ‘silver bullet’. We also think there is much confusion between generating low-Carbon energy and how we use energy in general. For example, both electric vehicles and heat pumps may be sold as ‘green’ or ‘low carbon’, but the energy needed to power them has to come from somewhere. Some would say, we’ll just have more Renewables. It’s of course not that simple. There are many big technical/logistical hurdles to overcome. Simply moving all our current transport and heating energy demand to renewable electricity is impossible for the electricity grid to deliver, certainly in the time available. See the TECs report on options for Net Zero for Teignbridge.
So why are ACT and many others still working hard if things are difficult or even impossible? Well, we think there are solutions, but they need everyone to take part and ‘do their bit’. If you are interested in this and the discussion around the subject of how to decarbonise quickly, effectively and without pain, please join us.
- To start to reduce energy consumption, see the TECs Carbon Footprint Tracker
- You can get a general introduction to the Energy/Carbon topic, what causes it and how to mitigate it effectively, take look at our Carbon Cutter scheme and training opportunities.