Dr. Arvind Kumar*
The latest report of the IPCC endeavours to tackle the ticklish question of how humankind is expected to join hands as a species to fix the prevalent climate mess. The IPCC assessment explicitly makes it clear that humanity is well-equipped to deal with climate change; nonetheless, it lacks the political will to do it. While calling the findings of the report a “damning verdict”, the UN secretary-general António Guterres called the report “a litany of broken climate promises. It is a file of shame cataloguing the empty pledges that put us firmly on track toward an unliveable world”. No rational person can afford to brush aside the warning of the UN secretary-general when he invokes climate catastrophes like unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages, and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals, as envisaged in IPCC’s latest report, as mere fiction or exaggeration, and it is this context he further adds: “it is what science tells us will result from our current energy policies”.
One of the sobering conclusions of IPCC’s latest report is that humankind would be required to cut emissions by 43% by 2030 and keep warming to the Paris Agreement’s goals of 1.50 Celsius. And the UNEP executive director Inger Andersen is sanguine about the availability of knowledge and technology to get this done through a rapid shift from fossil fuels to renewable and alternative fuels. He further adds that these changes are to be carried through moving from deforestation to restoration, through backing nature in the landscapes, ocean, and cities, transforming cities into green and clean spaces, and through behaviour changes to address the demand side.
While focusing on solutions, the IPCC report surmises that there are options available in every sector, including energy, industry, and transportation, to halve emissions by 2030, and to even reduce them as much as 70 percent by 2050. Noting that irrespective of the fact that the growth rate of emissions has declined over the last decade, emissions have continued to soar, James Edmonds, a lead author of the IPCC report says, “The good news story is that over recent years, humans have come up with some technological improvements that have been extremely valuable”.
Battery technology has driven down electric vehicle prices and is rapidly garnering international traction. Even the costs of lithium-ion batteries along with wind and solar power have gone down up to 85% between 2010 and 2019, and in many cases, these are now cheaper than fossil fuel-derived power. Another notable development in improvements in industry and manufacturing like advances in sensors, robotics, and artificial intelligence that have augmented energy management.
Undoubtedly, advances in a mixture of technologies that draw on renewable energy or are more efficient can be helpful in decarbonisation; nonetheless, these still comprise a small fraction of global energy generation. The latest IPCC report notes that in 2020, photovoltaics only consisted of 3 percent of the electricity produced worldwide, wind power about another 7 percent electric vehicles only 0ne percent of the global passenger car fleet.
While harnessing technology for carbon sequestration, emphasis on nature-based solutions efforts viz., reforestation and ecosystem restoration need to be focused on because triple benefits – carbon sequestration, boost to biodiversity, and promotion of human well-being – accrue from such solutions. There is a need to leverage both nature and technology to head off the worst of climate change.
*President, India Water Foundation
