![]() It’s core to nearly every part of your life: the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the home you live in, the products you use. They show how energy isn’t just what runs your house and your car. I think these grand challenges are a helpful way to think about climate change. (The final 10% is a sixth, miscellaneous category that includes things like the energy it takes to extract oil and gas.) That’s like adding another New York City every month for 40 years. The world’s building stock will double in area by 2060. ![]() This area will be more important over the next few decades as the global population moves to cities. Things like more-efficient windows and insulation would help. In addition, it takes a lot of energy to run air conditioners, heaters, lights, and other appliances. Do you live or work in a place with air conditioning? The refrigerant inside your AC unit is a greenhouse gas. Right now we don’t have practical zero-carbon options for any of these. More emissions come from airplanes, cargo ships, and trucks. Low-emission cars are great, but cars account for a little less than half of transportation-related emissions today-and that share will shrink in the future. ![]() So even if we could make all the stuff we need with zero-carbon energy, we’d still need to deal with the byproducts. Making cement and steel requires lots of energy from fossil fuels, and it involves chemical reactions that release carbon as a byproduct. Look at the plastic, steel, and cement around you. Cattle are a huge source of methane in fact, if they were a country, they would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases! In addition, deforestation-clearing land for crops, for instance-removes trees that pull CO2 out of the air, and when the trees are burned, they release all their carbon back into the atmosphere. We also need to make the electric grid a lot more efficient so clean energy can be delivered where it’s needed, when it’s needed. For example, wind and solar need zero-carbon backup sources for windless days, long periods of cloudy weather, and nighttime. Although there’s been progress in the renewable energy market, we still need more breakthroughs. Where do greenhouse gas emissions come from? I like to break it down into five main categories-what I call the grand challenges in stopping climate change: That means dealing with electricity, and the other 75% too. To prevent the worst effects of climate change, we need to get to zero net greenhouse gas emissions in every sector of the economy within 50 years-and as the IPCC recently found, we need to be on a path to doing it in the next 10 years. So even if we could generate all the electricity we need without emitting a single molecule of greenhouse gases (which we’re a long way from doing), we would cut total emissions by just a quarter. Making electricity is responsible for only 25% of all greenhouse gas emissions each year. I wish that were enough to solve the problem. Everyone who cares about climate change should hope we continue to de-carbonize the way we generate electricity. That’s good news, at least in places that get a lot of sunlight or wind. Renewables are getting cheaper and many countries are committing to rely more on them and less on fossil fuels for their electricity needs. In my experience, that’s what people point to when they think about reducing greenhouse gas emissions. What came to mind first? I bet you thought of solar panels and wind turbines. Quick: Think of some inventions that help fight climate change.
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