Climate Change Thread

[ReluctantSamurai]

Money talks, and all the bullshit about Net-Zero by 2050 walks:

https://www.energypolicytracker.org/region/g20

Policies are classified as “fossil unconditional” if they support production and consumption of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, “grey” hydrogen or fossil fuel-based electricity) without any climate targets or additional pollution reduction requirements.

Policies are classified as “fossil conditional” if they support production or consumption of fossil fuels (oil, gas, coal, “blue” hydrogen or fossil fuel-based electricity) with climate targets or additional pollution reduction requirements.

Policies are classified as “clean conditional” (“potentially clean”) if they are stated to support the transition away from fossil fuels, but unspecific about the implementation of appropriate environmental safeguards. ... Without appropriate environmental safeguards, such policies can still have significant impacts.

Policies are marked as “clean unconditional” if they support production or consumption of energy that is both low-carbon and has negligible impacts on the environment if implemented with appropriate safeguards.

Alternative ("Other") energy sources include geothermal power, wave energy, hydroelectric energy, solar thermal energy and even space solar energy. Geothermal energy is that generated in the earth and harnessed, while wave and hydroelectric energy harness the power of water.

There is considerable investment in renewable energy, to be sure, but the recent energy crunch in various countries-most notably China & India-are leading to a renewed usage of coal and other fossil fuels to make up the difference. It's a tough spot to be in, and one can't simply transition to renewable energy if you haven't made infrastructure commitments well beforehand.

Maybe the pandemic was Mother Earths' way of showing humans what this planet would look like free of fossil fuel (recalling all the stories and photos of clear skies and cleaner water during the world-wide lockdowns last year)...