26/10/2019

How Much Would It Cost To Stop Climate Change? It's A Staggering Amount

Sydney Morning Herald - Ishika Mookerjee (Bloomberg)

The world needs to spend $US50 trillion ($73 trillion) on five areas of technology by 2050 to slash emissions and meet the Paris Agreement's goal of halting global warming, Morgan Stanley analysts wrote in a report.
To reduce net emissions of carbon to zero, the world would have to eradicate the equivalent of 53.5 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, according to the report, which identified renewable energy, electric vehicles, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and biofuels as the key technologies that could help meet the target.
Arresting climate change will come with a hefty price tag, Morgan Stanley says.
Carbon emissions from fossil fuels hit a record last year, but estimates vary of how much it would cost to meet the Paris target of keeping the global temperature rise to within 2 degrees.
The International Renewable Energy Agency says $US750 billion a year is needed in renewables over a decade. United Nations scientists say $US300 billion spent on reclaiming degraded land could offset emissions to buy time to deploy zero-carbon technologies.
Here are Morgan Stanley's estimates for the five key technology areas and some of the companies leading the drive.

Renewables
  • Renewable power generation will require $US14 trillion by 2050, including investments in energy storage.
  • Renewables would need to deliver about 80 per cent of global power by then, up from 37 per cent today, meaning an additional 11,000 gigawatts of capacity, excluding hydro-power.
  • Solar energy's rapidly falling cost will make it the fastest-growing renewable technology over the coming decade with a 13 per cent compound annual growth rate.
Electric vehicles
  • With passenger cars currently pumping out about 7 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, some $US11 trillion will be needed to build factories, expand power capacity and develop the batteries and infrastructure needed to switch to electric vehicles.
  • With increased investment, annual electric vehicle sales could grow from 1.3 million units in 2018 to 23.2 million in 2030, lifting the total number of electric vehicles to 113 million by 2030 and 924 million by 2050.
Carbon capture and storage
  • Almost $US2.5 trillion would be needed for technologies that capture carbon and store it.
  • While it currently costs about $US700 million to capture a million tonnes of carbon a year, the cost of building CCS plants is expected to drop 30 per cent by 2050.
  • With more than 200,000 megawatts of new coal-fired generation capacity under construction, CCS is the only option to offset the emissions of these plants, Morgan Stanley says.
Hydrogen
  • About $US5.4 trillion is needed for electrolysers to make the gas, which can help provide clean fuel for power generation, industrial processes, vehicles and heating.
  • In addition, $US13 trillion would be required to increase renewable energy capacity to power the plants.
  • Another $US1 trillion would be needed for storage, with additional investment for transportation and distribution.
Biofuels
  • Almost $US2.7 trillion should go into biofuels like ethanol, which are currently mixed with petroleum products but will spread eventually to areas such as aviation.
  • About 4 per cent of global transportation fuel will be biofuel in 2030.
  • Ethanol, the most-used biofuel at the moment will grow at about 3 per cent a year, while a type of biodiesel called hydrotreated vegetable oil will achieve must faster growth, quadrupling production by 2030.
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