However, moving away from the fossil fuels that have been at the heart of economies for more than a century will require nations to do much more. Over the next decade, governments and companies will have to invest three to six times approximately $ 600 billion, which they currently spend annually to promote clean energy and reduce emissions, the report said.
But the cost of inaction is also significant in terms of deaths, displacement and damage. In the United States last year, damage from floods, wildfires, drought and other weather and climate disasters amounted to approximately $ 145 billion, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The agency said “extremely high” levels of disasters were becoming the “new norm”.
“Reducing emissions is much less painful than you think, and probably useful in the short term,” said Glenn Peters of the Center for International Climate Research in Oslo, Norway, who contributed to the report.
The new report looks at dozens of strategies proposed by scientists and energy experts to help nations make the transition.
First, countries will have to clean up almost every power plant in the world that produces electricity for homes and factories. This means relying more on wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal or hydropower. Most of the world’s coal and natural gas plants will have to either shut down or install carbon capture technology that can capture emissions and bury them underground. Such technology is developing slowly due to its high cost.
The next step would be to reconfigure transport, industry and other segments of the global economy to run on clean electricity, not fossil fuels. Gasoline-powered cars can be replaced by electric vehicles powered by low-carbon networks. Gas stoves in homes can be replaced with electric heat pumps. Instead of burning coal, steel plants could switch to electric furnaces that melt scrap.
At the same time, nations could take steps to reduce their overall energy demand. This could lead to expanded public transport, improved insulation so that homes consume less energy, recycled more raw materials and made factories more energy efficient. Ultimately, such demand-side policies could help reduce emissions in key sectors by up to 40 to 70 percent by 2050, the report said.
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