Climate emergency:Renewables revolution

In Context 

As the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ripples across the globe, the response of some nations to the growing energy crisis has been to double down on fossil fuels, pouring billions more dollars into the coal, oil and gas that are deepening the climate emergency.

Causes of Climate crisis 

• Generating power
  • Generating electricity and heat by burning fossil fuels causes a large chunk of global emissions. 
  • Most electricity is still generated by burning coal, oil, or gas, which produces carbon dioxide and nitrous oxide – powerful greenhouse gases that blanket the Earth and trap the sun’s heat. 

• Manufacturing goods
  • Manufacturing and industry produce emissions, mostly from burning fossil fuels to produce energy for making things like cement, iron, steel, electronics, plastics, clothes, and other goods. 
  • Mining and other industrial processes also release gases, as does the construction industry. 
    • The manufacturing industry is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide.

• Cutting down forests
  • Cutting down forests to create farms or pastures, or for other reasons, causes emissions, since trees, when they are cut, release the carbon they have been storing. 
  • Deforestation, together with agriculture and other land use changes, is responsible for roughly a quarter of global greenhouse gas emissions.

• Using transportation
  • Most cars, trucks, ships, and planes run on fossil fuels. That makes transportation a major contributor of greenhouse gases, especially carbon-dioxide emissions. 

• Producing food
  • Producing food causes emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, and other greenhouse gases in various ways, including through deforestation and clearing of land for agriculture and grazing, digestion by cows and sheep, the production and use of fertilisers and manure for growing crops, and the use of energy to run farm equipment or fishing boats, usually with fossil fuels. 
    • All this makes food production a major contributor to climate change. And greenhouse gas emissions also come from packaging and distributing food.

• Powering buildings
  • Globally, residential and commercial buildings consume over half of all electricity. As they continue to draw on coal, oil, and natural gas for heating and cooling, they emit significant quantities of greenhouse gas emissions. 

Impacts 

• All climate indicators continue to break records, forecasting a future of ferocious storms, floods, droughts, wildfires and unlivable temperatures in vast swathes of the planet.
  • Warmer temperatures over time are changing weather patterns and disrupting the usual balance of nature. 
  • This poses many risks to human beings and all other forms of life on Earth.
• Climate extremes, such as droughts, floods and extreme temperatures, can lead to crop losses and threaten the livelihoods of agricultural producers and the food security of communities worldwide.

Suggestions 

• We must make renewable energy technology a global public good, including removing intellectual property barriers to technology transfer. 
• We must improve global access to supply chains for renewable energy technologies, components and raw materials.
•  We must cut the red tape that holds up solar and wind projects. 
  • We need fast-track approvals and more effort to modernise electricity grids.
• The world must shift energy subsidies from fossil fuels to protect vulnerable people from energy shocks and invest in a just transition to a sustainable future. And fifth, we need to triple investments in renewables. 
  • This includes multilateral development banks and development finance institutions, as well as commercial banks.

• We need more urgency from all global leaders. We are already perilously close to hitting the 1.5°C limit that science tells us is the maximum level of warming to avoid the worst climate impacts. 
• We must reduce emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. 

[Q] ‘Climate change’ is a global problem. How is India being affected by climate change? Discuss the measures suggested for mitigation of this impact.