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Colder winters, suffocating summers and rising water levels are significant effects caused by climate change. Countries all over the world have relied on fossil fuels (oil, coal, and gas) but with fossil fuels come the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions which only aggravates the ongoing climate crisis. That’s where decarbonization comes in.
WHAT IS DECARBONIZATION?
Broadly speaking, any action, initiative, or process that can either eliminate or reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions is considered decarbonization, regardless if it’s at the individual level or at a global level. It’s impossible to cut all carbon emissions but where we can’t avoid CO2 emissions, we can instead capture and store it to prevent it from concentrating within the atmosphere. Decarbonization is a tool that continues to be refined and applied through cooperative efforts between policymakers, industry stakeholders and consumers.
WHY’S IT IMPORTANT?
The average global temperature has risen rapidly. To heat up the ocean requires a substantial amount of energy from the sun being trapped in the atmosphere since water has such a high heat capacity. Just two years ago, temperatures were recorded to be so high that 2022 was considered the fifth hottest recorded year. Though net-zero initiatives and commitments to lower emissions have been made, current policies can only mitigate annual temperature increases to around 2℃. And the reality is that the effects of GHG emissions are not equally felt across the Earth – where certain countries may experience sweltering summers, other countries may be subjected to frostier winters.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?
Decarbonizing can be divided into four targets: renewable energy generation, fuel shifting, efficiency and natural carbon sinks.
RENEWABLE ENERGY GENERATION
Generating power is essential to decarbonization. The energy consumption of high-income countries is not sustainable with carbon-intensive power sources. As renewable electricity sources are built, such as windmills, hydropower dams and solar grids, current fossil fuel plants must be upgraded to increase their efficiency and to recapture their emissions. Resiliency in energy sources is also part of the decarbonization initiative. Fossil fuel plants may be maintained as a backup source in cases where renewable energy may experience downturns. Microgrids are local electricity sources that lessen carbon emissions by reducing the need for fossil fuels in times of blackouts or other power failures.
FUEL SHIFTING
Plenty of industries are energy-intensive, from transport to manufacturing. In terms of transportation, exports and imports rely on maritime transport and trucking, which can be improved by using synthetic and hydrogen fuels. Manufacturing poses some challenges – how can the sector produce materials that require high levels of sustained heat? In that case, electrification is not the most convenient “one-size-fits-all” option for manufacturers but certain parts of material production can switch to use biofuels. For our own homes, offices, and other buildings, fuel shifting is practiced when gas-based heating systems are switched to electric-based systems or when the insulation is improved to prevent excess use of heating.
EFFICIENCY
Energy efficient is the low cost investment driven by innovation between industry and government, where the endgame goal is to reduce the energy requirements for materials. Management of energy plays a key role in energy efficiency by providing a central hub to collect and analyze current data, which informs and makes it easier to implement future decarbonization plans. When fuel shifting isn’t a viable option for industry manufacturing, high efficiency equipment can reduce used and wasted heat energy.
Efficiency can also apply to the products themselves by applying the circular economy approach: use less raw materials to produce our desired products, create products with long life spans and recycle the products when their lifespan has ended.
NATURAL CARBON SINKS
Preservation of our current environment will help us towards the goal of carbon neutrality. Healthy forests act as natural carbon storages but when deforestation and clear cutting are done, the stored carbon is released to the atmosphere, indicating that forest loss is a source of carbon emissions. Other agricultural techniques can be employed to increase carbon sequestration such as soil management, which is done via crop rotations and cover cropping (using clovers and other small plants to protect the soil in between regular crop seasons).
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