Bold ideas that solve the world’s energy needs.
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Introducing the Gigaton Problem: Melanie Kenderdine
Principal, Energy Futures Initiative
“The Arctic is warming 2 to 3 times faster than the global average. Sea levels have risen 7 to 8 inches since 1900. Atmospheric CO2 concentration reached the highest level in at least 800,000 years (415 ppm) in May 2019.” Speaker Melanie Kenderdine underscored these alarming facts at the beginning of her presentation. Through science and data, she highlighted the urgent need for actionable measures to address climate change.
To illustrate the extent of the gigaton challenge, Kenderdine stressed a few key figures from the United Nations Environment Programme the total worldwide emission in 2019 is 33 GtCO2, and this figure needs to be lowered by half (15 GtCO2) to keep global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, or 32 GtCO2 to reach the 1.5 degree Celsius goal by 2030. Kenderdine highlighted the importance of focusing efforts on sustainable energy demands in cities, while improving services in rural areas to lower global emissions and keeping temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
To reach a sustainable energy future, Kenderdine pointed out several areas of focus for continuous research and development, as well as the challenges involved. They include:
Kenderdine believes a “Green Real Deal” needs to be put into action to accelerate decarbonization and social justice, with immediate strategies required on the integration of renewable energy with utility majors, tax and carbon capture, and biogas for agriculture. To drive this change, three aspects are critical: investment in climate-resilient innovation energy infrastructure; supporting the workforce for a clean energy future; and, design and deployment of large scale carbon management systems.
If the current policy of ignoring the Paris Agreement targets remains, Kenderdine points out that the world energy demand by fuel types would still have oil, coal, and natural gas leading the charts by an increase of 25%, 17%, and 48% respectively by 2040. She notes that while it is important to have a positive outlook and action plan to drive the adoption of renewable energy, the uncertainty of the political climate might be a showstopper when it comes to implementation.
The comprehensive presentation covered a wide-range of research and data, and multiple questions were raised about social, environmental, and efficiency factors of mining operations, the difficulty of recycling renewable energy infrastructure, the unavailability of a national policy on carbon pricing, as well as concerns linked with land management for renewable energy deployment. Although we do not have the answers to these questions right now, to tame the gigaton beast, we must continue to search for ways to address the challenges of decarbonization.
Session summary by SISE Fellows Melody Yue Yin and Claudia Bustamante
To illustrate the extent of the gigaton challenge, Kenderdine stressed a few key figures from the United Nations Environment Programme the total worldwide emission in 2019 is 33 GtCO2, and this figure needs to be lowered by half (15 GtCO2) to keep global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, or 32 GtCO2 to reach the 1.5 degree Celsius goal by 2030. Kenderdine highlighted the importance of focusing efforts on sustainable energy demands in cities, while improving services in rural areas to lower global emissions and keeping temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
To reach a sustainable energy future, Kenderdine pointed out several areas of focus for continuous research and development, as well as the challenges involved. They include:
- Reduce coal production and move towards renewable energy.
- Metals and minerals for lithium-ion battery storage technologies are critical.
- Need for electrification of the transportation sector and the electricity sector.
- Need for methane emissions reduction in agriculture and services (landfills, wastewater treatment).
- Challenges with integrating intermittent renewables, battery storage for reliability in the system, and land constraints for the deployment of solar and wind must be addressed.
- Challenges associated with production and use of metals and materials (energy-intensive process, accountability of CO2 emissions, and environmental justice).
Kenderdine believes a “Green Real Deal” needs to be put into action to accelerate decarbonization and social justice, with immediate strategies required on the integration of renewable energy with utility majors, tax and carbon capture, and biogas for agriculture. To drive this change, three aspects are critical: investment in climate-resilient innovation energy infrastructure; supporting the workforce for a clean energy future; and, design and deployment of large scale carbon management systems.
If the current policy of ignoring the Paris Agreement targets remains, Kenderdine points out that the world energy demand by fuel types would still have oil, coal, and natural gas leading the charts by an increase of 25%, 17%, and 48% respectively by 2040. She notes that while it is important to have a positive outlook and action plan to drive the adoption of renewable energy, the uncertainty of the political climate might be a showstopper when it comes to implementation.
The comprehensive presentation covered a wide-range of research and data, and multiple questions were raised about social, environmental, and efficiency factors of mining operations, the difficulty of recycling renewable energy infrastructure, the unavailability of a national policy on carbon pricing, as well as concerns linked with land management for renewable energy deployment. Although we do not have the answers to these questions right now, to tame the gigaton beast, we must continue to search for ways to address the challenges of decarbonization.
Session summary by SISE Fellows Melody Yue Yin and Claudia Bustamante
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