{"id":181923,"date":"2022-04-29T20:48:40","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T15:18:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=181923"},"modified":"2022-04-30T10:50:29","modified_gmt":"2022-04-30T05:20:29","slug":"net-zero-by-2050-will-hit-a-major-timing-problem-technology-cant-solve-we-need-to-talk-about-cutting-consumption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/net-zero-by-2050-will-hit-a-major-timing-problem-technology-cant-solve-we-need-to-talk-about-cutting-consumption\/","title":{"rendered":"Net Zero by 2050 will hit a major timing problem technology can\u2019t solve. We need to talk about cutting consumption"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

News<\/strong>: Many climate activists and scientists are reassuring that the climate crisis can be solved rapidly without any changes to lifestyle, society or the economy.<\/p>\n

They suggest paths such as a)<\/strong> Switching from fossil fuels to renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency technologies, b)<\/strong> Adding seaweed to livestock feed to cut methane and c)<\/strong> Embracing green hydrogen for heavy industries such as steel-making. But this is not an ideal solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Achieving Net Zero by 2070 and the Associated Challenges \u2013 Explained, pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
Why reducing consumption is essential to reducing CO\u2082 emissions?<\/h5>\n

Growth in consumption<\/strong>: Between 2000 and 2019, renewable electricity witnessed 135% growth. In the year 2000, fossil fuels supplied 80% of the world\u2019s total primary energy consumption. In 2019, they provided 81%. This is because the world’s energy consumption has been growing rapidly.<\/p>\n

Challenging timeline<\/strong>: The world is on a very tight timeline. The global emissions have to halve within eight years and hit net-zero by 2050. If the world doesn\u2019t achieve climate goals, then it\u2019s likely the planet will cross a climate tipping point<\/strong> and begin an irreversible descent into more heatwaves, droughts, floods and sea-level rise.<\/p>\n

Issues with technologies<\/strong>: CO\u2082 capture is getting a great deal of attention, but it seems unlikely to make a significant contribution. But removing CO\u2082 from the atmosphere does not occur on a large scale because these technologies are speculative, risky and very expensive.<\/p>\n

Hence, if the world\u2019s energy consumption grows at the pre-COVID rate, technological change alone will not be enough to halve global CO\u2082 emissions by 2030. Further, to keep global warming under 2\u2103 the world needs to slash the global energy consumption by 50% to 75% by 2050 as well as greatly accelerate the transition to 100% renewables. So, the world needs a <\/span>lifestyle change driven by social policies<\/strong>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Is net zero emission concept zeroing in on Climate change?<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n
What should be done to reduce consumption?<\/h5>\n

The world needs to reduce consumption in high-income countries while improving human well-being.<\/p>\n

The 2022 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on climate mitigation acknowledged the importance of collectively reducing energy consumption. To do this effectively, government policies are needed to boost renewables and to reduce consumption. Such as<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> Creating a carbon tax and additional environmental taxes, wealth and inheritance taxes, 2)<\/strong> A job guarantee at the basic wage for all adults who want to work and who can\u2019t find a job in the formal economy, 3)<\/strong> Non-coercive policies to end population growth, especially in high-income countries, 4)<\/strong> Boosting government spending on poverty reduction, green infrastructure and public services as part of a shift to Universal Basic Services.<\/p>\n

This will make the human civilisation resilient to face climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Read more: Net Zero Emissions Target for India \u2013 Explained, Pointwise<\/a><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Source<\/strong>: This post is based on the article \u201cNet Zero by 2050 will hit a major timing problem technology can\u2019t solve. We need to talk about cutting consumption<\/strong>\u201d published in\u00a0DTE<\/strong>\u00a0on\u00a028th Apr 22<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

News: Many climate activists and scientists are reassuring that the climate crisis can be solved rapidly without any changes to lifestyle, society or the economy. They suggest paths such as a) Switching from fossil fuels to renewable power, electric vehicles and energy efficiency technologies, b) Adding seaweed to livestock feed to cut methane and c)… Continue reading Net Zero by 2050 will hit a major timing problem technology can\u2019t solve. We need to talk about cutting consumption<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10311,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[10504,10514,216],"class_list":["post-181923","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-down-to-earth","tag-dte","tag-gs-paper-3","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704765683},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181923","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10311"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=181923"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/181923\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=181923"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=181923"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=181923"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}