But the passive cost is also substantial in terms of deaths, displacement and damage. In the United States last year, the damage caused by floods, wildfires, droughts and other weather and climate-related disasters was approximately $ 145 billion. According to the National Maritime and Atmospheric Administration. The agency said the “highest” disasters were becoming “new normals.”
“Significantly reducing emissions will be far less painful and less effective than you think,” said Glenn Peters of the International Climate Research Center in Oslo, Norway, who contributed to the report.
The new report will help countries make changes to dozens of strategies proposed by scientists and energy experts.
First, nations must clean up all power plants around the world that generate electricity for homes and factories. That means relying more on energy sources such as wind, solar, nuclear, geothermal or hydropower. Most of the world’s coal and natural gas plants need to be shut down or installed Carbon capture technology It will control the emissions and bury them underground. Such technology is being taken slowly due to its high cost.
The next step is to restructure the transport, industry and other sectors of the world economy to run on clean electricity rather than fossil fuels. Petrol-powered cars can be replaced with electric vehicles charged by low carbon grids. Gas burning furnaces in homes can be converted to electric heat pumps. Instead of burning coal, steel mills can switch to electric furnaces that melt scrap.
At the same time, countries can take action to reduce their total energy demand. This will expand public transportation, improve insulation, thus making homes use less energy, recycling more raw materials and making factories more energy efficient. At the high level, the report notes that such demand-driven policies will help reduce emissions in key sectors by 40 to 70 percent by 2050.
But many economic activities cannot be easily electrified. The batteries are still heavy for most aircraft. Many industries, such as cement and glass, require more heat and currently burn coal or gas. For those emissions, governments and businesses need to develop new fuels and industrial processes, the report says.
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