As per Bill Gates latest book entitled "How to avoid Climate Disaster", 51 billion tons of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) GHG (5 greenhouse gases) are released into the atmosphere each year.
Source: GHG Emissions Interactive Graph
That's like 6.46 tons of CO2e GHG a year per living person (7.89 billion people)
= almost 10x the amount of trash each American produces a year per each living person on the planet
or
Zero is the number of net/new GHG emissions the planet needs to reach by the year 2050 to avoid worldwide climate catastrophe...a tall order considering where we are, today, and that the 2020 pandemic economic halt only decreased around 5 to 7% of GHG emissions!
Sources: The Case for the Planet & Climate Interactive
Reductions to Zero GHG Emissions is needed by 2050, to avoid planet heating the average planet temperature beyond 1.5°C, that may triger abrupt climate disasters/hurricanes/famines and kill orders of magnitude more than 2020 COVIT-19 Pandemic, every year...
For those thinking migration to Canada/Siberia would be an escape route, to these potential climate disasters, June 2021 has a warning, as the usually cold latitudes above 50° North have broken temperature records up to 49.6°C/ 121°F in Canada (instead of its usual 25° C / 77°F), and land temperature in the Arctic circle cities of Verkhoyansk, Siberia, Russia reaching 48°C / 118 °F.
This is more worrisome since it might trigger tipping points of runaway GHG emissions,
Under the melting Permafrost / Tundra in Canada/Siberia there is traped 20 years of today's GHG emissions, that may be released if we keep emissions and temperatures as this 2021.
The bottom of the oceans has another METHANE GHG MEGABOMB. On 37m38s of this video
dtarts an explaination of the 35 trillion tons of Methane (equivalent to 17.000 years of today's yearly GHG emissions, or 575 x ALL GHG emissions by Humans since 1971, the start of Industrial times, where the fossil fuel powered activities on the world have intensified, emitting over 1.5 trillion tonnes of CO2) frozen on bottom of the oceans. Once ocean warmed, caused its release to the atmosphere. Its know as The Permian extinction Event, killing 90% of all life on earth, probably caused initially by warming the atmosphere 4-5 degrees Celsius.
The methane time-bomb under the melting permafrost & in the bottom of the oceans, is clear, now?
Are we Wise enough to avoid this Climate Disaster?
To reduce GHG emission to Net-Zero is not just task of transportation sector by transforming ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) cars, trucks, ships and jets. Transport combined are 16% of all GHG emissions, but all other 84% of GHG emissions in other sectors of the Global Economy also need to be made emission free.
The GHG (Green House Gases) emissions per sector of the economy are distributed as per the following chart detailed in the book:
If 2020 COVIT-19 lockdowns were hard to swallow, estimates show that GHG emissions may have fallen ONLY up to 7% as a result of the pandemic slowdown. We need to do the other 93% in 28 years, that would be 3.32% GHGe reduction EVERY YEAR (if it linear).
Was this 2020 emissions reduction due to lower Energy consumption? EIA’s Monthly Energy Review, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions decreased by 11% in the United States in 2020.
So it's hard to make Transport & Electricity emissions free, but we are on our way.
According to Gates, the hardest sector needing technical breakthroughs to decarbonize is also the largest GHG emitter: Industrial. Many are trying to reduce de price to zero emissions Cement and Steel as well as looking for substitutes but not even close to what is needed to cut those emissions in 50% by 2030, at an affordable rate. We need to reduce the costs of emission-free alternatives on all sectors of the economy, as Gates articulates on his book and posts in social networks as the ones bellow:
But there are hopeful prospects in the other sectors like Electricity that have already drastically reduced their Green premium, like batteries, the holy grail for renewable energy storage.
According to Bill Gates on this book, Innovations must be made on these 19 Technologies needed to cut GHG emissions to Zero:
- Hydrogen produced without emitting carbon
- Grid-scale electricity storage that can last a full season
- Electrofuels
- Advanced biofuels
- Zero-carbon cement
- Zero-carbon steel
- Plant- and cell-based meat and dairy
- Zero-carbon fertilizer
- Next-generation nuclear fission
- Nuclear fusion
- Carbon capture (both direct air capture and point capture)
- Underground electricity transmission
- Zero-carbon plastics
- Geothermal plastics
- Pumped hydro
- Thermal storage
- Drought- and flood-tolerant food crops
- Zero-carbon alternatives to palm oil
- Coolants that don’t contain F-gases
And I would add a 20th: (INTER)NATIONAL COLLABORATION, so that WE CAN SPEED THE PROCESS OF ADOPTION to INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS, WORLDWIDE.
Money is available for Sustainable corporate solutions! Money is moving to sustainability and in January 2020 a megashift of investment started
"BlackRock joins 370 global investors already signed up to the scheme, bringing total assets under management by those participating to over $41 Trillion.
As signatories, investors commit to engaging with companies on a range of climate-related fronts"
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/blackrock-goes-green-investment-giant-joins-climate-action-100-amid-controversy
https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/publications/
Will adopt enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)."BlackRock joins 370 global investors already signed up to the scheme, bringing total assets under management by those participating to over $41 Trillion.
As signatories, investors commit to engaging with companies on a range of climate-related fronts"
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/blackrock-goes-green-investment-giant-joins-climate-action-100-amid-controversy
https://www.fsb-tcfd.org/publications/
Will adopt enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Gates warned us in TED 2014 (bellow) about the Pandemic and the world mostly ignored, and was not prepared in 2020 for COVIT-19 outbreak.
Gates also warned us in TED 2010 (bellow) about needing to have a ZERO GHG EMISSION, and his 2021 book is his 2nd reminder...we might not get a 3rd one, so better join a Zero emissions solutions peer-group like Project Drawdown and get involved in researching / building / adopting / advocating for the Zero emission solutions we need to Avoid the Climate Disaster.
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