Clean and renewable energy has limitless potential to help stop the rapidly advancing global warming. But unless we drastically stop using fossil fuels such as coal, oil and natural gas, that is just a possibility.
And now, in a new paper published in the journal Joule, 139 countries have come up with policies to transition to fully renewable energy sources, further slowing or preventing climate change, reducing air pollution and boosting jobs. We are working out a global concept that takes into account the enhancement and economic revitalization.
“Policy makers are generally reluctant to commit to doing something unless it is scientifically proven to be reasonably possible, so we are trying to prove it is possible,” the paper said. In a statement , Marc Jacobson, lead author and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, said:
To figure out how solar, wind and hydropower can meet that energy craving as we continue to power more and more of our essential transportation, electricity and agriculture. , Mr. Jacobson made his way to Research Headquarters.
The researchers will study the potential impact of a 100% shift to clean energy sources in 139 countries by 2050 (because these countries account for nearly all of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions). Thought. The researchers also looked at potential clean energy sources country by country, as well as where to locate infrastructure developments such as windmills (wind turbines) and solar power plants.
They believed that the technology of hydroelectric power generation (the often-controversial use of flowing water to generate energy) hasn’t changed since 2015.
However, most of the research on hydropower has focused on transitioning to carbon-neutral energy sources to slow climate change. This research considered the clean energy transition from a broad perspective.
“Aside from issues such as reducing carbon emissions, keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and starting processes to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, the transition to clean energy will reduce the number of deaths from air pollution. We could save 4 to 7 million jobs a year and create more than 24 million full-time long-term jobs,” Jacobson said.
Jacobson and colleagues predict that jobs in the burgeoning sector of renewable energy will compensate for the jobs lost in the energy switch. They also calculated that the cost of air pollution from the continued burning of fossil fuels will be $22.8 billion annually by the middle of this century, with climate impact costs adding another $28.5 billion. presumed to be
“The results of this study suggest that the benefits of renewable energy are so great that fossil fuel systems should be phased out wherever possible and accelerated as quickly as possible to convert to wind, hydro and solar power. ,” said Marc Delucci, a research engineer at the University of California, Berkeley and author of the paper.
“There could be enormous social benefits from zero-emission energy systems at essentially no additional cost,” he added to the statement.
Enacting renewable energy solutions is not uniformly easy. The authors believe that countries with low population densities, such as the United States and China, have ample space to devote to renewable power plants. We will have to be more creative when it comes to countries that don’t have enough land.
Critics argued against the plan that a 100% replacement with renewable energy would be costly in the process and would require large amounts of capital. But the authors of the paper argue that part of the funding could be allocated for maintenance and replacement costs that are inevitable in conventional energy. What’s more, the proposal is just the beginning, Jacobson said.
“There are other ways,” he said. “I’m not saying there’s only one way to make the transition to renewable energy. I just wanted to give an example to help people understand.”
Mark Dyson, of the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) in Boulder, Colorado, who was not involved in the study, said, “This paper will raise awareness among the scientific, political, and business communities toward a decarbonized economy. We can move forward with the concept and planning discussion,” he wrote in the Joule.
“The scientific community’s global shaping of the transition to low-carbon energy provides strong evidence that a transition in energy sources is possible, and increases our understanding of the tangible means of making the transition. ‘ added Dyson.